Recurrent Dream
by pepsipez
Summary: Taking place after the eleven light novels, although ignoring some facts from the last two. Thanks to her power, Haruhi gets Kyon involved in what she believes is her dream. This will only be the prelude of the first great adventure of the SOS Brigade to save the world. Finished.
1. Prologue

**Recurrent Dream.**

 **Prologue.**

"Love isn't anything more than a temporal lapse in judgement." That was what I heard her said that one time. Somehow, it gave me the impression that she wasn't bluffing, after all, I had never heard anybody that could speak her words with such seriousness. She never jokes, never says something randomly. She then topped it off with, "I have even felt that urge, after all, I'm a young and healthy girl. My body has needs." I don't doubt it for a moment, although, to be quite honest, I couldn't care less.

That's what I thought at least, until that fateful day. Though I'm exaggerating, it can't be that bad. Who am I kidding? Try to put yourself in my shoes for a moment, dear reader, I have a reputation to defend.

Before I could notice, I cursed the global warming once again for forcing destiny upon us sooner than later. At this pace, it won't be necessary another tantrum from Haruhi to finish the world. This winter was truly violent and having to climb the hill to the high school at lower than two degrees Celsius made me walk even more hunched of what I'm used to. There, our personal goddess, nowhere to be seen. She can make super natural humans appear and monstrous in closed space, but she apparently can't make the weather more peaceful. Her common sense must be worth millions. New definitely and never used once.

With such negative feelings in my mind I arrived at my classroom where I found my bossy brigade chief already set in her seat right behind mine. Just like me, she wore every possible piece of clothing to appease the cold. When she saw me crossing the classroom, she stood up from her desk without so much eagerness and turned to where I was coming from.

"It's cold!" She exclaimed while she rubbed her hands that were covered with some thick wool gloves.

"Really? I didn't notice." I answered, particularly putting emphasis on the sarcasm of my response while I walked closer to her.

"There's no need to be so rude." She said irritated and then ordered, "Hug me!"

No. There's no way, it doesn't exist a power in this world that can oblige me to something like this. I prefer taking my clothes off and go walk around the school yard butt naked before doing such a thing. What you just read is, of course, the response that she was expecting after her request, but lately I've noticed that the best way to beat her at her own game is doing the opposite of what she expects. That way, against all odds, without even bothering to give her a verbal answer I leaped onto her and I tightened her up just the way she had requested.

The impact of my adventurous game was such, that it took some seconds before she reacted. I don't want to be presumptuous by interpreting her behavior but it seemed to me that she debated for a moment whether to reciprocate the hug or not. Finally, she opted for not doing it and she pushed me off her, however, I doubt it was because she wanted to, but rather the issue was that we were in a classroom full of people, and even though everybody was busy with their own business, more than one witnessed our little pantomime and smiled with an expression of "I knew it" on their face.

Some minutes later I started to feel a little guilty from my actions. By now, Haruhi must've pocked me at least three times with her pen just to say something stupid, however, she hasn't done it so far today. I think I went too far. I made the conscious decision to later apologize and to promise to never to do it again. Come on, it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was very nice, at least for me, after all, she is a very attractive young girl and it was very comforting seeing her confusion. Any expression that differs from her usual irritated face suits her incredibly well, and in spite of the almost twenty centimeters of clothing between us, I could still feel the athletic slenderness of her little body. What? Ok, forget I said that.

I must admit that I got worried about Haruhi's lack of usual movement during the day, in fact, I started to worry she was mad at me. Although now that I think about it, that's probably for the best. And just when I started to go over this thought, the ring went off announcing the end of class.

"Let's go!" She said completely recovered. I suppose that at the end it wasn't such a big deal.

The rest of the afternoon went by without a hitch. Nothing to do in the club room besides trying to stay warm by drinking Asahina's tea, and make fools out of ourselves playing some board game, while the brigade leader looked indifferently at the computer's screen. Maybe it was only my imagination, but she shot fleeting glances at me every now and then. No, of course no, that would be ridiculous. The day ended and we all went home.

* * *

"Damn, it's cold!" I said out loud while I looked for the blankets that I was using to cover myself just a few seconds ago. I stretched my hand without opening my eyes to grab them, but I could only pull some frozen leaves from the grass. Did I say grass? Fuck, not again.

Resigned, I opened my eyes to find myself with what I feared. One more time the school in the middle of the night. Another fucking closed space. But this one was different. The sky, although gray and dark as always, gave the impression of being constantly revolving. The temperature was the same that we had throughout the day and in fact there was some sleet falling. Damn it! I'm only wearing my pajamas! I will die from hypothermia if I stay on the yard! Without having a very clear idea of what was going on, I walked to the club room. If this closed space was like the one from last time, the building would have electricity and the stove would help me go through the night. This time it is just me here.

It was useless to run. I reached the club room completely soaked and knowing it was just me I opened the door. I was wrong, I wasn't alone.

"What are you doing here?" Questioned a shivering Haruhi, kneeling next to the small electric stove. "Don't tell me that this is the same stupid dream again."

"Well you have an incredible imagination." I responded. "This dream's being is being killed by the cold."

"Well, it doesn't matter, help me with this." She said while pointing to the now very abundant Asahina's cloth repertoire on the coat rack. "If we set it in a corner, we can maintain the heat from the stove."

Only at that moment I noticed that she was also only wearing her pajamas. Damn it, I shouldn't have noticed… it's just a two-matching set, underwear and bra, both are yellow. I should look another way. Concentrate on the clothes that you need to move and not on the torturing images that are forming in your mind. Her shoulders look so delicate. Shit, look straight ahead! Just as I thought, her back is perfect. I hadn't seen this much of her skin since the pool. What the hell, leave it alone! Once again, I turned to the coat rack to take the last piece of clothing. Haruhi set the clothes on the floor behind me. Dear God! The curvature that forms between her waist and her hips gives me vertigo. This girl loves to run around everywhere and has an enormous physical endurance. I wonder how firm her…

"What are you looking at?" She asked suddenly. I was so concentrated admiring the perfection of her figure that I completely forgot that she had a face, now injected with a trembling shame that I have never seen on her, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest. If the cold had the effect that we all know, right this second... Fuck, stop thinking like a pig, brain! You aren't like that!

I shook my head and closed my eyes, turning my back to her.

"Forgive me, this is very strange." I said with honesty. Ashamed, I kept the frog's head from the costume with me. The image that kept burning my sight had provoked a physical reaction in me and I had to hide it, I feel very stupid. "You are so beautiful." Why the fuck did I say that?

Silence…

"Do you really believe so?" I didn't expect that she would respond like this. I didn't even expect her to respond at all.

"Of course." I replied without daring looking at her again.

"Can I tell you something?" She asked, convinced only half way. "At the end, it doesn't matter that this is a dream, but I will feel good if I can at least tell you here."

"Yeah." I responded, still without turning around. She thinks she is dreaming.

"Today, the real you did something weird at school." After saying that, a rare expression of joy decorated her precious face. "He hugged me. Not only was it nice, it made me feel something different. Maybe it was because it was cold, but it made me…" She doubted. Apparently, she was choosing her word very carefully. "It made me want him, more than just a hug."

"Are you serious?" I dared respond. What is this girl thinking? Even more importantly, what am I thinking? It should be something serious, because my heart rate has duplicated.

"But this dream is different…" She remarked while she got closer to me. "There are so many more details... you, yourself… you behave so much like you to have come from my imagination." I didn't respond this time, but I could feel her breath on my back. The sensation was hallucinating… How should I feel? What should I do? "Tell me, Kyon in my head… What would the real you do here and now?" Saying these words, she hugged me and dug her face on my back. Her breasts also stretched out on my body and I could feel them through the thin cloth of our pajamas.

I stayed quiet. My locomotor apparatus was starting to work outside the jurisdiction of the rational part of my brain and I limited myself to face the girl. My God! What happened to her while I had my back on her? To tell the truth, neither her appearance nor her outfit had changed… it was the look on her face… I always thought of her as an attractive girl… but damn it! Right now, she expelled a sensuality that I had never seen on her. The elements on her face played at different levels: her eyes shunned mine with legitimate shame while her lips formed a smile full of… What word could I use? Lust?

"It's cold!" She said in a whisper. I had déjà vu. "Hug me."

It was until that moment that I lifted my arms ready to obey when I noticed that we were still wet from the bad weather outside. With a naturalness and looseness that even surprised myself, I got rid of the soaked shirt and I took the girl by the waist. Frankly I didn't have the slightest idea of what to do next, fortunately, she did have something in mind. She held my face with a delicateness that I never believed I could experiment with her. With a similar tenderness and ingenuity, she then kissed me. I suppose that it is her first kiss just like it's mine… I stand corrected, it is the second. That would explain the clumsiness from both. A few moments later, we laid on the pile of clothes that we had set on the floor some time before. I separated a little from her to get rid of the stuff I still had on and she executed a similar action with her own stuff.

It took me some seconds to recover from the glorious vision that I had in front of me once she took the little pieces of clothes covering her body. It would be a lie if I say that this scene never played in my mind sometime. Using my brigade leader's philosophy... I am a young and healthy young boy… my body has needs.

"Don't look at me!" She said taking momentarily her eyes away from mine. However, I ignored her and in fact I softly took her hands when she tried to cover her pale torso with her arms.

"How could I stop looking at you?" I asked congested between her beauty and my excitement.

"Idiot!" She responded faking annoyance. There was a tinge of pride in her voice.

There was nothing else to think about. Without any premises, but diligently, I started to kiss her ivory neck. She, surely as confused and inexperienced as me, simply left me do my thing. Eventually, she sighed when my caresses and kisses reached some sensible spot, which only made me go over those spots more frequently. In general, my common sense is awake and aware, ensuring I don't do stupid things, but that day it was particularly silent and lost in my brain's luggage. A part of me tried to look for it, but it was stopped short by a voice.

"Don't worry about anything… just keep going." That is Haruhi. I have always wondered if she can read my mind. Her voice sounds as if she was drunk, but… Damn it, it's so exciting to see her like this! So, I listened to her, I put my conscience to rest and I concentrated on the Goddess that was in front of me.

And once again I traveled those places that I know in the future will mean something to me in more than one way. The clavicles, the abdomen at the level of the diaphragm, the navel… I begin to comprehend why the youngsters of our age overestimate this life's episode so much… And I am enjoying it with her… Die of envy you idiots! Nobody else exists so out of your reach, mortal men!

"Come here." Once again, it's her… I know what she means, but in eagerness to obtain my importance I pretended I didn't understand and I made a face. "Stop playing stupid." She countered while stretched her arms towards me. "You know very well what I want."

Of course I know. I can't believe I'm feeling so anxious… but I recovered and I set myself on top of her to begin to… well, you know what it is I had to do at this point. And before beginning, her lips captured my attention once more… rose-colored, small, soft… I must kiss her again. That I did and just when I was about to start with the chore, I stopped and I got a few centimeters away. She looked at me confused.

"What's wrong?" She asked me.

"Maybe we should do it in a different way… I wouldn't want to…. hurt you." That came from my heart all the way to my mouth, I swear. I was just as surprised with my sudden preoccupation.

Slightly confused and surprised in a good way, she listened to me, and with that strength that it's characteristic of her, she laid me on my back. I can't stop looking at her… she is so beautiful. And just the way it is expected, she didn't miss a beat... she takes her hot tea in one gulp… we could say she did something similar with me. It only took her a few seconds to recover from the initial pain and in about literally two minutes she was galloping on top of me. The feeling was already wonderful mixed with a visual spectacle… and without stopping, she spoke once again.

"Do you still think Mikuru is better than me?"

I can be damned if I ever expressed that thought out loud.

"I never said such thing." I've only thought that if she were a little more like her… tender, friendlier, helpful, sweet… damn it, I'm an idiot… She has been all that and more tonight… Considering that if my current situation would've involved Asahina instead of Haruhi, there is no doubt I would be regretting it right now… Even if I would've been the most tender man in the world, at the end, I'm sure that I'd feel as if I took advantage of her… She would be crying a river by now… I think I've just concluded that Haruhi would be, by quite a lot, a much better lover.

And once again I got the feeling that she is reading my mind, I could see her openly smile when realizing that without a doubt she would better… and with that in her mind, at least, that is what I assume, she began to move more rhythmically… she put her hand on her nape, making the image she was gifting me even more fascinating. She didn't care anymore… she was concentrated, not so much on the physical stimulus that she was receiving, but more so on the compliment that I had given her without any words, and unabashedly, she started moaning. I'm used to hear her yell all the time, but it is so different listening to her voice at these frequencies. We were finally getting to the point we were looking for. I'm still surprised, until this day, at the synchronization in which we were reaching it… I suppose it has to do with her powers… and we achieved it... I noticed it not only on my own body, but on hers, when her rhythmic movements started to become erratic and then spasmodic… ah, also from the open screams she yelled while this happened.

It was as though someone took my batteries out… any movement after that became an effort I was not willing to make. Haruhi dropped on my lap without abandoning the position in which… in which we had just made love… I still can't believe that I'm writing this, It's crazy! Several long minutes went by in silence while our breathing became regular. Time that I took advantage of by caressing her perfect back, now soaked in a fine sweat with a magnificent fragrance that had me drugged.

"The dream will end soon." She said with a certain sadness in her voice.

"There is something I've been wanting to tell you." I told her while I sat up half way without stopping to hold her." A person cannot be happy all the time… think about it for a little bit… What would happen if one day not only you find an alien, but he also invites you to live in his planet? Don't you think that after a while, that would also be boring?"

"Where is that coming from?" She asked, contradicted and with an irritated expression that I was beginning to like.

"From common people like me that have to keep the good memories from all those things that make you happy and use them during times that there's melancholy or sadness. I know you detest being like everyone else, but knowing how the enemy works could be the first step to be even more special."

She thought for a moment about my words and then she showed me a bright smile.

"You are right… I hadn't thought about it like this." She looked at me with suspicion. "But that is something that I didn't know… if this is a dream, it means that everything that you are telling me is something that it was already inside my mind since the beginning. That's why you are here and that's why we did what we did, right?"

I didn't respond… I would've liked telling her that it wasn't a dream, that her whim had taken me to this closed space, which wasn't looking like something horrific to me at this moment, but she wouldn't believe me.

"It's ok, it doesn't matter!" She said, full of joy. "Let's do it again?"

* * *

At around 5 a.m. I paced desperately from side to side in my room. I had woken up on the floor again, next to my bed, my pajamas soaked with water and sweat and right now I held my phone waiting for someone to pick up on the other side. The call went through and nobody spoke. That was a sign that Nagato had picked up.

"Hello Nagato, I'm sorry to call now… Did I wake you up?" I know it might sound like a dumb question, but until this day, I don't have any proof whether she sleeps or not.

"…"

"Something has happened..."

"I know."

"Do you have any idea what it was?"

"No, Suzumiya Haruhi and you disappeared from our temporal space for about four and a half hours. Asahina Mikuru and Koizumi Itsuki are both with me right now. Nobody has been able to enter the closed space in which you two were by any means. For a moment, we thought the worst."

"You can't even imagine, it was so crazy…!"

"Really? What exactly happened?" That was the idiot Koizumi, and Nagato surely put her phone on speaker and I was having a conference with the whole brigade.

"Eh… Maybe it would best that I tell you guys in person." There is no way, I won't tell them anything of what happened tonight.

"It seems that in reality, it wasn't too bad." This time it was Asahina who spoke. "I have the impression we have nothing to worry about."

"Why do you say that?"

"Koizumi didn't lose his powers, Nagato was still connected to the Data Integration Entity and I had contact with my superiors. No communication or cycle in the space-time was broken." Asahina doubted for a moment, as if she was ashamed of what she was about to say. "It seemed that Suzumiya only wanted a little privacy."

You hit the nail on the head. I think I better hang up on these weirdos and I will try to sleep the little bit is left of the night. I'm exhausted.

* * *

I slept like a baby for the two hours of sleep that I had left. The school hill was particularly hard, because added to the weather, today's worse than yesterday's, I also had my exhaustion and a fastidious pain on my hip. I won't go into details. I thought that the best thing to do was to behave as I usually do when I get to the classroom. Haruhi supported her forehead over her crossed arms on top of her desk and she looked like she was sleeping.

"Long night?" I asked her.

"Stop bothering me, I'm sleepy."

"A nightmare?" She lifted her face very so slightly, allowing me to see only her eyes.

"No, it was a dream."

"You should then concentrate on using your energy remembering it when you get bored. I'm sure it will make your day more appeasable."

Once she heard me say this, she sat up opening those beautiful eyes as much as she could.

"That's what you…" Yes, Haruhi, that's what I told you last night during that episode so out of this world where it was only you and me. But I doubt your reasoning allows you to see the link. "Ah, forget it! It's madness!" She said more to herself than to me and again put her head in between her arms.

"If it was such a nice dream, maybe you should try to have it sometime." I told her while a turned around to face the front of the class when I saw the professor came in.

It needs to be very clear that the last sentence I said it only to say it. There were no secret intentions of the like. But she listened to me. The dream has been repeated several times. I must admit that it has been better every time. Maybe one of those times I'll get the courage to tell her what it's really going on. Perhaps she'll take it well, perhaps then I could tell her that I couldn't continue my life without her by my side, not in this recurrent dream though, but in this world, in the real world.

 **Prologue.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey there. Today is a great day for me, and this is because of a new friend of mine that suddenly offered to translate this work… you know, once I tough to translate it myself, however, it became an overwhelming demand of time and effort, and considering English is not my mother language, maybe I wasn't the right person to do the job. **Luf5** , on the other hand, have enough knowledge to be the bridge, I know she will make an incredible work and I am very thankful to her for helping me with this work. I hope you like this story, and I'll put the translator notes with my own at the end of every chapter. Don't forget of leaving a review!

 **Translator Notes:** Hello everyone, I'm the translator of this story. Pepsipez, the original author, first published it back in 2010 and he completed it the following year. It contains 16 chapters, including the prologue. It was written in Spanish and I have just recently read it. Let me tell you guys, the story is amazing. I've read a lot of fancfiction and I've never been so blown away by a story. It is so good that I contacted Pepsipez to offer to translate it into English. I think everybody that loves Haruhi fanfiction needs to have the option to read this masterpiece. I would feel bad if I didn't share it with all the English-speaking readers, so here it is. I should be able to have a chapter translated a week. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did, and please leave your comments/thoughts. Pepsipez and I would love to know what you guys think!


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

These January days have been strange regardless of the perspective you use to look at them. I know you think it's odd for me to say that given the little normalcy my life has had since April of two years ago. I still don't know whether to characterize as good or bad the closed spaces that Haruhi has been creating. These have been appearing at a pace of once a week and I've been involved in them in a new and unknown way, at least, until some time ago for me. I must admit that they have seasoned my shocking personality with some shades that developed my self-esteem and maturity, I'll explain that later. But being the only normal human amongst the curious brigade members, I also am the most susceptible to notice the changes in the environment.

However, it wasn't until Nagato, with that stoicism that characterizes her, warned me about what was going on, that I finally paid attention to my sixth sense. I accepted the fact that once again I was too distracted with the idyllic calm and I ignored the storm that was approaching us.

"The periodic spatial-temporal structural alterations can degenerate into the definitive destruction of the affluent actual data and the subsequent creation of new parameters."

"Excuse me?" I asked confused while I had the feeling that the humanoid interface was getting exasperated with my little comprehension capacity from her talk.

"I understand." Added Koizumi with his advertising smile. He turned to me with the condescending look he always gets when he must translate Nagato's words to me. "What Nagato means is that these disappearances from you and Haruhi could become a double-edged sword… even though Suzumiya has reduced, by a great margin, her stress thanks to them, there exist the risk that at one point she will prefer that closed space and make it into her real world leaving the world we know drifting. You guys must be having a good time there…"

"Stop saying things that can be misunderstood." I said slightly embarrassed. By the way, we are at the coffee shop of always, today is a Saturday and we went to look for mysteries again. The reunion has already ended and Haruhi went home, the rest of us had a type of 'emergency meeting'. "Is it as bad as it sounds?" I asked directing my question to the alien again.

"Although is not an extremely dangerous situation, it is a latent risk that the Data Integration Entity would like to keep under observation."

"Eh… that would be a little uncomfortable… I mean, it would be like spying on them…" That was Asahina, as considerate as always. These last weeks I have perceived that she is a little warier in the way she treats me and Haruhi. It isn't bad, but it feels weird, I even have the impression that she is being very careful not to invade my personal space. About what she's saying, I completely agree with her, it is already bad enough that Koizumi previously investigated my life for him to now start observing me while I'm in my 'special moments' with Haruhi.

"Could we put this on pause for a moment?" I said a little overwhelmed while I held my nose bridge. "You yourselves have told me that Haruhi's common sense allows the world not to suffer from serious alterations, so as long as she continues to believe that it is nothing but a dream, everything will be ok, right? Leave that to me, if I need any backups I will ask for your help… Plus, I don't believe that you guys wanted to talk only to tell me that you wanted to observe our…" I was going to say 'intimacy' but it would've sounded very explicit, although it took me a considerable while to find a different word to replace it.

"That's right." Said Koizumi. "Asahina, would you be so kind as to explain to us the report you received?"

The mood became a little tenser. Asahina seemed confused and worried.

"It is not very clear to me what has happened, but it looks like there have been significant changes in the time's normal flow into the future where I come from… the 'classified information' has experienced reversible changes, but from an undefined origin nevertheless… In other words, the future is changing, but it can be corrected."

The last thing I needed. Because of me, better yet, because of Haruhi, the future was changing.

"No." She responded, correcting my misconception. "It isn't caused by you guys… I mean, one could say it is, but not in the way you think. I mean, that is classified information, but even my superiors don't understand very well what's going on. Perhaps, the best thing to do would be not to prematurely assume, let's wait until there is a better understanding of what will happen."

With this premise, the meeting ended and now I have a terrible headache while I get ready to sleep. I feel a little over my head, I mean, I'm only sixteen years old! I think that I carry more pressure than what I should be able to handle. My bad habit of thinking too much about things is hurting me, so I will just sleep, that will help me clear my mind.

* * *

"Are you really this lazy?" Asked the girl with the μ Cephei bright smile, with her head supported by her hands. I could clearly see her thanks to the dim light that came through the club's window. This time I'm sitting in the chair that I usually occupy during the day, but my head rests on my arms while I slowly wake up. The closed space again.

"Hello." I said without so much eagerness. "Why are we here?"

"I'm bored."

Just because you're bored… Have you ever been interested on someone else? Although it doesn't bother me as much as it seems… I think that's precisely that trait of your personality that makes you so special… Hopefully you'll never change.

"What's in your mind?" I asked, however, the answer was obvious.

"I think you can get a good idea… I brought that some days ago anticipating that it could be useful." She said, while pointing to a big plastic bag, that I had effectively noticed she brought since Friday, but didn't know its contents.

I stood up, I took the enormous bag and I opened it. A sleeping bag… Why doesn't this surprise me? I turned to the girl while giving her a smile, rather a discrete one. I threw the rolled-up sleeping bag over my shoulder and I took Haruhi's hand.

"Come on!" I told her while I guided her out of the club room. "Today I'd like to do something different."

"Pervert." She radiantly said while letting me lead her.

Minutes later, we were in a common place during the day, where the whole brigade had spent some breaks and reunions. The roof of the school's main building. I laid the sleeping bag down and I looked at the opaque sky.

"It would be wonderful to see the stars." I said, feeling the cold hit my hands and cheeks.

"Yeah, it would be." She responded while getting into the bag.

"You could make that happen if you wished to."

"That's so silly… it's okay if in my dream I am the boss, but it's not like I were some kind of Goddess either."

"What if you were? What would happen with this space if one day you realized that all your limitations are only contingent by your common sense? Wouldn't it be fantastic to discover a way to make the world more interesting based on your own effort?"

"Of course it would! That's why I created the brigade!"

You aren't understanding. I limited myself to sigh while I directed my eyes again at the lead-colored and dark sky. And then, after a few seconds of quietness, a miracle happened.

The grayish coat that cloaked the sky opened with a slight breeze. Since the city lacked the artificial lights that had in the real world, the firmament, clear now, offered the brightest and most starling light's spectacle that I had ever seen in my life. I could clearly see the milky way cutting the sky. It was stunning.

I turned to the person that I believe with more and more certainty is a Goddess, her face illuminated by the stars reflected an innocence that warmed my heart despite the weather… Damn it, I sound weirder every time… It seems this girl is affecting my perception of things. Finally noticing me, she gave me a hand signal for me to sit next to her.

Some moments later we were laying down inside the sleeping bag enjoying the sky. She was set on my lap and we spent a long while without saying a word or doing anything. I had never felt this comfortable in my life.

"Would it bother you… if we don't do what we usually do?" She asked in a whisper, breaking the silence.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." I answered her while I held her tighter.

"Are you really this… gentle?"

I did not respond. I've always thought that I am a very accommodating guy, trustworthy and friendly. But this is different. My gentleness with her has become different… It has turned into tenderness… Fuck, I didn't want to admit it…

I'm in love with her.

"I know I would sound crazy…" She said, even more quietly. "But sometimes I feel as if this wasn't just a dream… deep down, I wish it wasn't."

Once again, the silence settled in. Some minutes went by before I realized she had fallen asleep. What the hell is going on with you? Who falls asleep inside her own dream? I meditated about all this while I used the tip of my pajamas sleeve to dry a drop of drool that was threatening to fall from her half-closed mouth.

This is perhaps what I should avoid. I should make Haruhi not prefer these moments over the daily-life ones somehow, or the world would be truly in danger… maybe I would be safe here, but… what about the others? What would happen with my parents and my sister? And what about the other members of the brigade? I even feel a little remorse about the silly Taniguchi and Kunikida… although it would also be hypocritical on my part to say that this isn't great… in fact, a part of me would also wish this stopped being just a dream…

* * *

Three in the morning. I woke up, this time without falling off my bed with a very comforting feeling of tranquility. I suppose that's what can be called a 'religious experience.' I looked through the window in my room suddenly feeling that the world out there is more threatening and boring than it used to. One could say that it's simply the reminiscence after what I just lived, but that wasn't it.

For some odd reason and against my usual behavior, I felt like going for a walk. There shouldn't be much for me to worry about, I live in a peaceful neighborhood and I've known people that go for walks regardless of the time when they can't sleep. So, I took a thick coat, some shoes, my keys and I set out to take a brief stroll around the neighborhood.

I walked without any sense of direction for a few blocks, only barely aware of the nocturnal sounds. Some dogs barking, cats chasing each other on the other side of the wall… nothing out of place. While I marched, I saw the mist that the cold made come out of my mouth, and I kept thinking in a way to forge an escape for Haruhi and for me out of those wonderful close spaces. It's odd that it is so much harder for me to think about it in a night when the sexual element didn't dress the soiree. This goes deeper and it's more complicated. The tranquility from this night helps me think with a better clarity and the cold makes me have greater lucidity. I devised some plans, but all of them sounded ridiculous, from telling her next time that I didn't want to see her again or to ridiculously pretend I had forgotten. The sovereign stupidity also showed up, crowning my infructuous ideas: to tell her that it wasn't a dream and that I wanted to transport it to the real world. I laughed into myself after just thinking it. What a stupid idea!

It was in that moment where all the peace and tranquility that I had left ended.

The dream was over, the nightmare was starting. This was somehow what I knew would happen, but the change that occurred took me completely off guard. Less than a block away I could see a silhouette, slightly blurred by the poor lightning coming from the street lights. It took me only a few seconds to decide and I started to unmake the walked way back home. I started to feel anxious and I picked my pace up. To my horror, the silhouette that I saw some meters ahead started to advance towards me, I didn't bother to turn around to look at it, I simply slightly turn my head to go home. A thief? If a run enough I can make it home… if he's armed with some sharp object, I can probably give him a fight… if he's got a fire arm, I'm truly in danger. I concentrated on walking faster to avoid those torturing thoughts; my heart accelerated even faster when I noticed that this mysterious figure was diligently closing the space between us. I'm about five blocks from home… I won't make it…

The person finally caught up to me. From our shadows, projected on the ground, I could deduct that this is person is shorter than me… in fact, the body looks smaller than mine, and more delicate as well… it's a woman, very young, perhaps my age… With all these elements mixing in my head, why am I still feeling this fear, almost organic, freezing my blood?

Her right hand took hold of my right shoulder. Until now, nothing horrific or worth of being considered dangerous. Using her left hand, she pressed something sharp against my right side, without hurting me, only making it known she was armed. That was enough reason to feel threatened. I tried to move a little, but I noticed that the hand that was holding my shoulder had a colossal strength. This really made my hair stand on end… I had to know what I was facing, so I decided to face my assailant.

The shock hit my gut forcing me to stumble while an unpleasant chill traveled down my spine. Young girl, beautiful… long hair to her waist and a smile that seems it was made with Photoshop… For over a year, part of my worst dreams and memories.

Ryoko Asakura.

"You…!" It was all I could articulate feeling the threat.

"We have to flee." She responded leaving me completely confused. "Or they will find us… I must protect you at all costs."

Using the same monstrous strength I knew she possessed, she dragged me by the captive shoulder taking me to the closest alleyway. There, she finally let go and pushed me against the wall while she looked with suspicion at the entrance of the alley.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her without being so sure to want to listen to her reply. The last time I saw this girl she tried to murder me with the same survival knife which with she is threatening me now. That one time she almost succeeded. I can still feel that cold blade going through my side…

"I can't explain right now." She replied without losing her composure and without stopping looking towards the closest street. "The first thing will be to ensure your safety… I must see your Nagato."

"My Nagato?" I asked exasperated. This doesn't make any sense.

"It's a long story… I must contact your Nagato and create a link with the Data Integration Entity."

Every word that came out of her mouth did nothing but to increment my confusion that now is touching some desperation… Someone explain to me what the hell is going on!

"Don't you want to kill me?" She blinked a couple of times when she heard my strange questioning. This time she was the one that was shocked and looked at me weirded out.

"Why would I want to kill you?"

"To obtain data from Haruhi… that's what you said last time…"

The ex-class president condescendingly smiled.

"I promise that I will explain what's going on very soon, now there's something more important to worry about… She finally found us…"

"Who"

Asakura finally erased her smile and stood in front of me, facing the alley's entrance light. The street lights started to shut down, but the light didn't disappear… in fact, every object inside my visual field radiated its own dull glint. The breeze stopped, even the temperature increased a few degrees… Asakura took a combat pose putting the frightening knife in front of her face. On the corner, with a slow but decisive pace, another female figure approached us… more than slim, she was tiny. Her pace lacked any body language.

"You made it first. You should know that despite that, there is no possibility the result will change. The threatening level you represent to me is minimal and easily controlled."

That voice… I'd like to say I hear it often, but despite spending time with her almost every day, it's rare to hear her speak.

"I will protect this human even if I have to offer you my life, Nagato…" Asakura talking like this… OK, I'm lost, I don't unders… Wait a minute! Protect me from Nagato? What the hell is this?

A more careful look at Nagato brought the answer.

I don't know how to explain it. It is Nagato, but at the same time she is not… she has the same appearance, the same lack of emotions and gesticulation… but there's something odd about her… something sinister that I can feel pushing me despite the close ten meters that separate us.

"If that's what you wish, I will guarantee it gets done." No… she isn't Nagato… she wouldn't threaten anybody… not even Asakura… she could be a lot of things, but she is, overall, an entity that protects and looks after everybody… and before I could put these thoughts in order, I heard something I hadn't heard coming from Nagato in a long time, "SELECT serial number FROM Database WHERE Snumber=information ORDER BY terminatedirective HAVING target=Personal Name: Ryoko Asakura, maverick grade. Destruction of Priority Data Flow Completing."

The space distorted in such a violent way that it gave me vertigo and I couldn't do anything other than to fall on my knees, dizzy and nauseous. When the little cataclysm stopped, the alley had vanished and we were on something like a cloud above the sky… Damn it! I can see the whole city from here! I can even see the darkness farther away from its own limits.

It took me a few seconds to recover from the shock, but in the same minimum lapse of time, the battle had already started. In a previous occasion, I saw myself involved in a fight between these two women and then, although Nagato was superior at the end, there was a certain equilibrium in their powers… this time it was so different… Asakura, without losing that attractive unworried expression, protected me and protected herself from the outlandish attacks coming from Nagato, but she wouldn't return fire in the slightest… Nagato materially subjected a frenetic Asakura that moved at a super human speed to repeal energy, a projectile or whatever invisible thing that was thrown against each of the two of us; while this was happening, Nagato didn't even move from her place.

"Nagato!" I dared finally screamed. "What's going on? Why are you attacking us?"

More concretely… Why me? As it was expected, there was no answer. However, having gotten her attention, she seemed to concentrate her attacks directly at me, that had stupidly gotten up, giving her a better opportunity to attack me. Why do I have to be involved in this type of situation? If this aberrant version of Nagato had found me alone, I would've surely died without knowing what hit me… and despite having a slim notion that I'm in danger, I can't calculate or move to get to a safe place with my own means… I feel useless.

The following happened in an instant, after hearing a deafening blast, I could feel a big amount of dust and debris hitting my face and hands while I covered myself, next to something wet and warm. After opening my eyes again, amongst the still present dust cloud and a pair of meters in front of me, Asakura was kneeling. Her left arm hung bleeding and still, her attractive face was burned on the left side, the same as part of her hair. With horror, I noticed her ear had disappeared.

"The erasing of data can be a process that causes no pain to your interface… Allow me to end this the fastest and most efficient way, just let me do it." Invited Nagato, with the sound of her voice the dust fog parted giving us a clear vision of her… perhaps it was the tension of the moment, but I could see something like disdain in the look giving to the almost defeated Asakura.

"That's impossible." Responded my protector while getting up with some difficulty. "Because I want this human to live… perhaps he can put an end to all this craziness…"

"It will be in the most difficult way then." Something in our surroundings changed once Nagato said that. Have you ever been close to a dust tornado? It was a similar sensation, as if she was concentrating all her strength and preparing to throw it against the both of us… if that was happening, all hope would be lost… although I wouldn't want to die here and now, attacked by this rare version of Nagato and protected by an even rarer version of Asakura, I'd like to know what's going on.

It looks like my own personal Goddess listens to my wishes even when she's far. A new distortion in the space made Nagato lose her concentration and she looked to the sky. There's no expression on her face, but I know she's confused, after all this time, I know how to interpret her moods.

"You shouldn't be here." I then heard a friendly and melodic voice that seemed omnipresent, "if you don't immediately abandon this space, we will proceed."

"We have conducted a precise analysis of your data composition, we have a way to dilute it." That's Nagato's voice… my Nagato… How is that possible? "Time to confirm and initiate protocol to dissolve data T-minus 10…"

Our attacker dedicated a last look to us. I had never seen those eyes in Nagato… it was truly horrifying… Without bothering to respond to the warnings, she simply vanished.

Seconds later the kaleidoscopic distortions to the surroundings started to become the alley again. Little by little the nocturnal noises came back, I again noticed how a heavy mist came out my mouth due to the cold, the street was dark again and the street lights offered their cold light.

In front of me, Asakura lost all her leg strength and dropped her combat knife while she lost her equilibrium. I rushed ahead and caught her before she hit the floor.

"Hold on! I'll get help!"

"Don't worry." She replied to me with the smile of a dramatic actress. "The help has come."

Instinctively, I turned towards the direction my guardian was looking at, the same alley's entrance. Standing, inexpressive was Yuki Nagato. Next to her, holding her hands in front of her skirt while giving us a warm smile, was Erimi Kimidori. A few moments later they had reached us.

"You have to help her… she saved my life." I told them while supporting Asakura and feeling a weak trembling from her lacerated body.

Nagato turned towards Kimidori and for a couple seconds they didn't do anything else other than to look at each other. Finally, Nagato agreed once and kneeled in front of Asakura. She extended the palm of her hand until it was some millimeters away the damaged interface's face and started to inaudibly conjure while her lips vertiginously moved.

I have always found extraordinary the way in which Nagato manipulates the information or whatever it is she does. While she did her canticle, Asakura's bloody, ripped and burned clothes started to be in good shape again and as clean as if nothing had happened, the burns on her face began to regenerate, the lost ear reappeared and even her burned hair grew again, the smell of singe was totally replaced by the aroma of a jasmine perfume that Asakura used to wear. Done with the process, it took Asakura some seconds and deep inhalations to, after thanking me, get up from between my arms.

There I was, next to three girls in the middle of the night, all three of them beautiful, this would be a perfect stamp if it wasn't for the fact that all three of them are aliens. Once again, I have the impression that they communicate amongst them without using words and even without using a body language, what I could indeed notice was that Nagato and Kimidori look at Asakura with something like intrigue. A long minute went by in total silence, only interrupted by my still agitated breathing.

"Request synchronization." My protector broke the silence. It looked like the other two were waiting for her to say it.

"Granted." Responded Nagato and moments later both looked at the sky.

While this was happening, I had the stupid idea that if I concentrated enough, I could hear their hard disks… What silly things one thinks when coming back from the dead!

"Understood." Said Nagato a couple of minutes after. She talked to Kimidory again. "Initiate emergency protocol." I detest it when they speak like that, I don't understand anything and I feel like a kid when he listens to a conversation between adults that he isn't supposed to hear. "Let's go." She said finally talking to me. "We will escort you home and we will keep watch over you. The physical exhaustion that you have experienced today could have affected your cognitive abilities. It would be best that you rest today, tomorrow the situation will be explained to you in detail."

The four of us walked towards my home. Nagato asks me to sleep so I can digest all the information tomorrow… but I have so many questions… What is Asakura doing here? Who or what is that Nagato that attacked us? Is Haruhi again involved in this craziness? And more importantly, why am I involved?

 **Chapter 1**

 **End**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** To be honest, my first idea was leave the prologue as a scandalous one-shot, but then I thought that the characters and history could give some more… so I begun to write and couldn't stop anymore… I hope you share this feeling with me. Enjoy yourselves!

 **Translator Notes:** Well, here's the concrete beginning of the series. I'm having so much fun translating these chapters. I don't think I could get tired of reading pepsipez's amazing writing/stories! If you thought that this would only be a love story, you were wrong. Haha. There's a big romance side to it., but pepsipez does an incredible job integrating the science fiction elements without leaving the citric elements behind. I hope you are enjoying these first chapters as much as I am enjoying translating them. Until next time!


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I have good news for you." Our teacher began to say at the beginning of our first class. "A classmate that many of you already know is back. She just came back from Canada and she will stay with us for some time."

With that said, he slid the door open and a triumphant Ryoko Asakura walked in. Most of our classmates were happy to see her, even Haurhi, seated behind me, suspiciously directed a smile at her. I felt her pen trying to put a hole on my shoulder blade.

"She came back, did you see? She's back! This is strange! It calls for an investigation! I will try to have lunch with her to get her to tell me the truth!" She said in a barely contained whisper.

You are so right, there needs to be an investigation and find out what the hell is going on here. While we were in our musings, Asakura took her assigned seat, almost on the opposite side of the room and she set her belongings down. Moments later she turned to where we were seated and with her tulip smile she waved at me using her right hand. I limited myself to assent, but the classmate sitting behind me completely changed her facial expression.

"Why is she greeting you with such familiarity?" She asked.

"She's only being courteous, you shouldn't feel jealous."

"Idiot."

Even after that little incident, I could still feel the excitement coming from my brigade boss… my experience was slightly different, I had anxiety. I had the impression that I would soon find out something I didn't want to know. When lunch time got here, Haruhi left like a hurricane towards Asakura's seat and disregarding the complaints from Asakura's friends, Haruhi held her hand and took her out of the classroom to an unknown destination. To think that when we just met her she didn't even bother to say a word to Asakura despite of the many times she tried to establish a conversation with her.

* * *

I hadn't even brought lunch, so I simply directed myself outside the classroom and towards the direction of the club room searching for some answers. Nagato is always there, she will give me an explanation. Once I got there, I knocked a couple of times. The usual silence indicated I could go in.

"Hello." I said as I usually do. A quiet Nagato looked at me from her corner with her usual lack of facial expression. She wasn't alone today.

"Good morning." Kimidory politely said. She was seated in one of the folding chairs at the large table.

"If you are both here, that means that you have something to tell me, right?"

Nagato assented. She turned towards me barely moving her body.

"Today, in the middle of the night, you had contact with an alternative version of Asakura Ryoko and Nagato Yuki. Both proceed from the same dimensional plane, different from this one. The plane where they come from had the technology and resources to destroy dimensional planes, guaranteeing the journey between both territories.

"Destruction of dimensional planes"? I asked auguring a big headache in the next seconds. "Like the one from Asahina's TPDD?"

Its nature is similar, but the mechanism works around different contexts. The TPDD is a tool to destroy spatial-temporal planes and it doesn't have competition with the dimensions that the simultaneous realities share. In simple words, the Asakura Ryoko and the Nagato Yuki that you met yesterday, come from a different dimension.

Well, I finally know a pair of sliders. Haruhi will be happy.

"I suppose then that we will have new brigade acquisitions… Haruhi finally brought to the scene the missing member…"

"You're wrong." Kimodori courteously interrupted with her melodic voice. "They weren't brought here by any data manipulation or generation created by Suzumiya. Their incursion is completely independent. And they haven't been the only ones. After the EID ran an emergency analysis this morning, it was concluded that there were six simultaneous successful incursions. You have seen two of them already. We are currently trying to identify the other four invaders."

"According to the information provided by the synchronization with Asakura Ryoko…" Seconded Nagato. "…on top of the alternative version of Asakura Ryoko and Nagato Yuki, from now on designated as Nagato Yuki-Ni, the others that also arrived at our dimensional plane are Asahina Mikuru-Ni, Koizumi Itsuki-Ni, Suzumiya Haruhi-Ni…"

It was only needed for her to say my name with the postfix 'Ni' to make me feel dizzy. The rest of the talk was full of thick technicalities related to the destruction of the dimensional planes and a verbiage that made me feel nauseous after a few minutes. In short, trying to avoid overwhelming you, the point is that something like an alternative SOS brigade had arrived in the middle of the night, while Haruhi and I were in the starling closed space. So far there wasn't much to worry about other than trying to legitimate how it is possible for five people to occupy two different places at the same time.

"But there's more…" Said Nagato, ending the conversation and standing up from the chair to go back to class. "Although I consider it convenient that Asakura Ryoko-Ni explains that to you. We will be waiting for you at my apartment tonight at 19:00 hrs."

Without more, the alien abandoned the club room. Kimidory imitated her a little after and she walked passed me making a well-mannered reverence.

* * *

"And so, did you get any interesting news?" I asked Haruhi back in the classroom.

"Nothing… but I will make her talk."

From then on I was tempted to ignore all the silly conspiracies that the girl seated behind me surely would start to spit out at any moment, however, she shook me with her following question.

"Do you know what a lucid dream is?"

"No idea." I fake dementia.

"According to what I read, it's when you become conscious that what you are living is in reality a dream."

"It sounds tedious and stupid."

"Not at all! In fact, that's when the most interesting part begins…" She said. I could feel all the energy filling her up. "…if you can manage to become aware of your dream, you can manipulate it at will, you could make whatever you wanted to happen whenever you wished it, and the best part is that it wouldn't in the least interfere with your need to rest. You could even wake up in a better mood and with more energy if you have good dreams, don't you think?"

"I almost never remember what I dream…" That's true, at least it was until a little while ago. "And even if I remembered, I'm the type of person that likes to go with the flow of the events and let things happen the way and when they should happen."

"Do you know how irritating your lack of initiative is?"

With this statement, the day's conversation ended and we went through the remaining lessons. Once the time arrived to go to the club room, Haruhi barely said something like 'hurry up' and left the classroom, I was still finishing taking some notes and it took me some more seconds to leave.

"Kyon!" Said a voice intercepting me between my seat and the door, making me jumped a little. I'm still not used to hear her without the words 'murder' and 'impossible' coming to my mind. I need to work on that.

"Yeah?" I responded recovered watching Asakura walk towards me, while a little group of her silly friends stared at us in front of the classroom, waiting for her.

"It's nothing, I just wanted to thank you for last night."

"Thank me? I think it should be the other way around." I said scratching my nape. The truth is that she is the one that saved me and I hadn't shown my gratitude yet.

"I hope that in the future you could see me as a friend and we could get along well." She moved her face close to mine in a way that I was the only one that could hear her words. "I'll see you tonight, there's a lot we need to talk about."

After saying that, she gave me that enchanting smile that she's got and winked at me, to later reunite with the other girls from class that were already making faces about the recent scene while looking at me with suspicion.

"So, you're expecting a big night, huh?" Haruhi attacked once I stepped out of the room. She was waiting for me by the door, apparently listening to the brief interview from a few seconds ago.

"It's nothing." I said resting it importance, although anxious, do not misunderstand me, it's not because of fear, but I'm aware of what a misinterpretation can cause.

"No?" She said while walking to the club. "What happened?"

"Eh… what happened was…" Damn it! Hurry up, make something up! "… I ran into her last night in a convenience store, my mom sent me to get some things and she was there. Her bags ripped, she was carrying too many things because she just got to Japan, I offered help and carried her purchase to her place."

"You even know where she lives?"

"We know. Remember last year we went to find out what had happened with her?"

"That's right… and why are you seeing her again tonight?" This is such an accomplishment! A legitimate jealousy display from my brigade chief!

"To thank me, she invited me to dinner at her place…" I gave Haruhi a cautious look, whom seemed to have incremented the speed of her pace. "… although to be quite honest, I don't really feel like going."

"Oh! But you must go!" She said with a certain corrosive shade to her voice. "This is a great opportunity! Asakura is a pretty girl and very popular! Perhaps you won't have another chance to get close to her!"

"Honestly, I don't think she is my type!" That's also true.

"And who's your type then?" Touché. What answer should I give? There exists a very vast range of qualities that I consider to be agreeable. Let's see… I like girls with long hair, that can be put on a pony tail… bad idea, she wouldn't like me to say that… ok, I like sweet and innocent girls that awaken my protector side… bad, bad, that's has nothing to do with her either. Wait a minute, it's my likes, why should I consider what she thinks about it? Even more complicated to explain, why if this girl contradicts many of the models that I have for my ideal girl…? I was about to write something very stupid that would spoil everything I defend about myself… I'll be more careful from now on. "Do I have something on my face?" She asked, taking me out of my thoughts. I have no idea how long I spent reflecting about her question, but when I realized it, we were already at the clubroom door and all this time I hadn't taken my eyes off her. This is very embarrassing.

She gave an irritated sigh and opened the door. Nobody was there, not even Nagato. I can't say this is unexpected, according to what I just found out, she probably has a lot of work right now, when it comes to Asahina, she is surely clueless about everything that's going on. Koizumi, on the other hand, must be getting up to date about the whole situation.

"What do we do now?" I asked while setting myself in my usual place and seeing her sit down in front of the PC. Truthfully, without the other brigade members, there's nothing to do… I'd like some of Asahina's tea right now…

"Help me with the brigade's website." She replied with an absolute use of the improvisation resource.

"Do you finally have an idea about what to put on it to make it non-empty?"

"Kyon…" She countered like a mother tired of repeating the same scold to her most rebellious child while holding the yellow megaphone, using it to point at me. "I can't be telling you all the time what to do, Why can't you have more initiative?"

"Would that give me the freedom to put whatever I feel convenient on the website?"

"As long as it isn't something stupid or unnecessary."

"If that's the case…" I brought my folding chair close to the monitor. "We could probably start posting the events in which the brigade has been involved. There have been really good stories, somebody surely would like them and we'd gain some supporters."

"That's what I was talking about when I said not something stupid" Quiet, little girl, don't be abusive. "You need to not only have more initiative! You also need to be more assertive and precise!"

I ignored her words and I swear I concentrated in thinking ideas to put on our dull webpage. After a moment, I had the feeling that my nape was being pierced by my companion's gaze.

"It's something going on?" I asked facing her. She had given me this look once already… When she concentrates, her gaze is so penetrating that it could become perturbing. I was already used to it.

"Why are you so… normal?" She said with her gaze still on me, but without really talking to me. It sounded more like self-reflecting than a conversation.

"Pardon me?"

"Nothing, forget it… I don't like your idea, it's silly. You need to think of something else."

"And how could I do that if every idea I come up with is crossed out as dumb without even considering it?" Watch out! Don't reply so harshly, it is not needed.

"It's not even considered because you don't show any interest to put it to work. It's not the same thing to say, 'let's publish our stories' than 'I have the redacted stories and I will publish them today.'" After saying this, she hit my head with the megaphone. I'm lacking sleep, I'm hungry and irritated, it is not a good idea to provoke me like this. Not today.

"So what? Does that mean that any concreted idea, even if it is something stupid, should be taken as good?"

"That's better than simply waiting to see what happens!" She lifted the megaphone for a second time, which soundly landed against my head again.

"Stop hitting me! What the hell do you want from me? Either way, you never consider what I say!"

"That's not true! I always take into account everything any brigade member has to say! I'm only wanting you to be more active! I want you to do things without me having to ask you!"

By this point, we both were standing up and Haruhi threatened with dealing the third hit to my head. Were you provoking me? You got it.

"Enough!" I said surprising even myself due to the volume my voice had reached while holding Haruhi's wrists. "Don't you think that at some point your abuses get tiring?"

"How dare you talk to me like this? You are the lowest brigade member!" She responded also yelling while struggling to get loose from my grip.

"Fine! As the lowest brigade member, I tell you I'm fed up with the way you yell at me! I despise being hit! You have no idea how much!"

"Then do something about it!"

The following happened very fast.

In the struggle, we both tripped making Haruhi fall into the brigade's leader chair, this one, having wheels, went sliding until it reached the right wall of the club room. I, fighting to keep my balance, went following the chair without letting go of my adversary's wrists and I ended kneeling down in front of her once we hit the wall. The position was very incriminating. Haruhi's hips barely used the seat's space, they were almost on the edge. My hands, still holding hers, had her against the wall and my own body was left close against hers… her skirt was dangerously lifted, barely covering the essential parts while I had a very hypnotizing perspective of her firm and white thighs on each side of my waist. The fight and its conclusion gave me a very agitated breathing.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked without moving an inch of a muscle.

"Showing some initiative." I replied directly looking into her eyes, less than ten centimeters away from mine. It will sound odd what I'm about to say, but… Even fighting with her is exciting… And she knew what was going to happen afterwards… I'm going to kiss her… that shouldn't be the real problem… the issue is, what will I do after?

"You won't do it…" She mockingly replied. I hate it that she knows what I'm thinking. "You don't have the… you don't have the courage to do it."

"I don't?" I said lowering my voice and getting my face to millimeters away from hers. I could feel the way she stopped breathing…

I focused on her left eye. It was open and it was shooting that blinding glint… I was waiting for a signal. The signal showed up and her eyes closed, although she didn't relax her posture in the absolute. I closed my own eyes and I was determined to attack.

"Eeeeh!" It was heard by the door. Before I could turn to see who it was, I was sent flying a couple of meters from where I was due to the push that Haruhi had given me.

Before I could completely recover, Haruhi had stood up and was fixing her clothes, all the while an unintelligibly bunch of apologies and a sincere and happy laugh could be heard by the door. I got up as I could to find Asahina, almost crying due to shame, and Tsuruya, dying of laughter.

"P-p-p-pardon me! I should have knocked before coming in! It wasn't my intention!" Claimed Asahina, feeling truly sorry.

"Woah, Haru-Nyan! You waste no time! I'm sorry I interrupted!" Tsuruya celebrated.

"You didn't interrupt anything." Haruhi casually responded while setting her chair in front of the PC again. "This idiot tripped and fell over me."

It was a simple and believable answer that solved the issue. Tsuruya arrived with Asahina due to school business, only to get a book, seconds later she was leaving saying goodbye as energetically as always.

Asahina stayed there with the two of us not knowing what to do or say, not even trying to change into her maid outfit, uncomfortably looking at us. The following twenty minutes Haruhi spend surfing the net, while Asahina prepared some of her multi-awarded tea of karigane that made me feel thankful with all my heart. Eventually, she would look at us and she immediately would look away. Haruhi didn't pay it any mind to the fact, I couldn't stop noticing it, but frankly, I was more concentrated on the incident of a minutes ago… we could say that I wanted to finish it. My brigade's chief restlessness, whom constantly tossed and turned on her seat, demonstrated that I wasn't the only one that had such feeling.

We finally arrived at the dead point where either you do something or you better leave. Haruhi took the baton and suddenly got up.

"I'm going home." She announced. "Last one to leave close the door."

And as it usually goes, without any other words, she left.

* * *

After Haruhi went home, I walked with the time traveler outside the school's perimeter towards the station. The atmosphere between the two of us, after such shameful incident from this afternoon, had become very heavy. I wouldn't know how to explain it… I mean, I'm aware of the fact that since I joined the brigade, there had always been certain level of flirtation between Asahina and me… She is a beautiful girl, and whoever can't see that is blind in more than one way… I feel if the roles would've been reversed and I was the one that found her in an incriminating situation with another guy, I'd also behave strange. My admission might sound bold, but I think she's a little jealous.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked after several minutes in silence, we were reaching the bottom of the hill.

"Eh…? No! Nothing is wrong!" She responded, surprised and anxious.

"If there's something going on, please, don't hesitate to tell me, I will do what I can to help…"

"Thank you…" Another minute in silence went by. "In reality… there's something…" I stopped then and I gave her all my attention. "What happened between yesterday and today? Nobody tells me absolutely anything… my superiors won't give me any information, Koizumi and Nagato seem as confused as me."

"Well, that would be a little complicated to explain… I myself don't believe I fully understand what's going on." That's the truth. That's the reason I have to go to Nagato's apartment today. "Is that what has you so anxious?"

Asahina dropped her gaze and continued walking. Of course, that wasn't all.

"What's been happening during these last weeks? I'm referring to those periods of times in which Suzumiya and you disappear…"

I was expecting her to ask me something like this… although to be honest, I didn't prepare an answer. What could I tell her anyway? 'We go to a very nice closed space where we have fun sexual encounters'… It's not that it embarrasses me, in fact, I know more than one would kill to be in my shoes right now. My issue is rather there's a couple of facts I can't ignore when it comes to giving an explanation. Fact number one: Those are very intimate things, and aside from being that what happens inside those closed spaces, I don't like going around telling what I do in private… even if what we were doing in the closed spaces was just playing chess, it is something I don't want to share. Fact number two: I wouldn't be talking about my private life only. As bad, rude or unlikeable as Haruhi could be, she deserves to have her privacy respected, even if everything happens while I'm present. I wouldn't like it if out of the sudden she started telling what happens there. It's a matter of respect. Adding to this it's the irrefutable fact that Asahina seems like a very sensible person to me, I wouldn't like to cause her a trauma due to a very explicit description or a bad interpretation.

"Actually, it's nothing serious." I managed to respond at the end. Plus… I feel it would be like making fun of her intelligence thinking she doesn't perceive it. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that I feel that you both have changed a lot… I wouldn't know how to explain it, but you have gotten closer… I have even felt that you both ignore the rest of us at times."

"Really?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't want it to sound like a complain…!" She apologized. "In fact, it has been very beneficial. The normal tension which Suzumiya was normally under has decreased so much that it barely causes any disruptions to the space-time… some of my superiors have even thought that we are close to solve the issue that keeps us from traveling further back in time."

What peculiar people I jostle around with. There are times that I truly completely forget about all the paraphernalia around the members of the club I belong to. All of them, even Nagato have around the same age as me, and although in different ways and levels, they share the same inquietudes and problems. I think I'm starting to understand that Asahina's wakeup call comes from the normal doubts that any teenager gets when one of her close friends begins to smoke, gets his first job, decides to leave home or starts to be sexually active…

It was very comforting to get this understanding, I was about to show my gratitude to Asahina when I noticed something odd about her behavior.

Asahina was literally petrified looking down the street, at the intersection that would take us to the station, there was about twenty meters left to get to said location. Only at that moment I realized just how strange the situation was in general. There was no one else in the street. No one, seriously. Even the crows had stopped squawking, there were no cars driving by or pedestrians walking by, even the northern wind, as inclement some minutes before, seemed to contain its breath.

This must be a joke.

At first I thought it would be some optical effect, or my imagination giving me a hard time. Then, noticing Asahina was seeing the same thing I was, I didn't have another option other than to accept it was real.

She was there, exiguous height, with her long, brown, and slightly wavy hair falling over her back. She wore a black two-piece outfit that marked, in a very favorable way, her slim, almost voluptuous figure. What I just said could, without a doubt, describe Asahina. However, there was something diametrically different. Her pose… full of confidence and security, was opposite to the almost timid proceeding of the time traveler I deal with every day. Crowning that presentation, there was a wonderful smile of white teeth like pearls… a smile that shows not only happiness… but rather cynicism.

I guess that after this description you already figured out the identity of the person I'm talking about. Some meters away from us, there was no other than Mikuru Asahina-Ni. I had also lost the ability to move. Seconds later, the alternate version of my time traveler started to walk towards us. I wasn't afraid, it's true, but I must admit that the whole situation resulted to be very disturbing.

"So, in here you are so close to each other that you walk home together…" Our visitor commented with her sweet voice. "This world would be so much easier then."

I tried to formulate a good reply to her comment… or a good question, but before I could say or do anything, Asahina-Ni disappeared… she simply vanished in the wind without leaving a trace… Asahina got close to me as fast as she could with a fearful expression despite the alleged threat was gone. Endless seconds went by in suspense in which the environment didn't regulate itself… there were still no people or noises, like in a B rated horror film.

"Waiting for someone?" Asahina-Ni suddenly asked behind us, almost making me spit my heart out from the impression.

Asahina couldn't stifle a scream and she dug her nails on my arm due to the surprise. I intended to turn around to face the girl but it was impossible. The ground literally parted imploding under our feet… I'm sorry, I can't think of another word to describe what happened. I had the horrendous feeling of losing my center of gravity like when you ride a roller-coaster and a moment later I landed on my back, at a considerable distance from where I originally was, so hard that the wind got knocked out of me. I fought for an instant to recover my breath and my sense of direction. I could then see Asahina-Ni walking towards her homonymous, who had evidently passed out from the impact. She got close to her and kneeling next to her, in an infamous act, she grabbed her hair with her left arm and picked her up. Absolutely no! Nobody treats Asahina like that! Not even herself has the right to treat her with such savagery! I damned my lungs for not recovering as fast as I'd like them to and I searched on the ground for anything that could help me…

Asahina began to wake up due to the pain coming from her neck caused by the hair pulling. It took her an instant to realize her situation and her eyes brimmed in absolute terror to see her own smiling face looking at her with disdain.

"Damn…! I'm beautiful!" Asahina-Ni mockingly said.

Softly, she put her right hand over Asahina's chest, whose face was completely lacking any color. What happened next still bristles my hair until this day… it's one of those things that I wouldn't want to experience again in my life. Asahina let out the deepest and most strident painful scream I've ever heard come out of any other living being while her arms and legs pitilessly shook. The punishment lasted only about five seconds and when it stopped, Asahina-Ni entrancedly laughed. There was a second discharge with the same effect, another five endless seconds… Asahina was suffering the pain, but my heart was breaking in two in the face of my incompetence.

"ENOUGH! STOP! I'M BEGGING YOU!" That was Asahina… I had never heard such sincere plead…

"Leave her alone!" I yelled, already recovered, while throwing one of the rocks that had been part of the street minutes ago towards the head of our attacker. I surprised myself with my great aim I used to throw it, but to my discontent, the shot didn't connect the objective. Once again, she had evaporated.

Asahina fell on her back since she wasn't being held by her hair anymore. Instinctively, she took a fetal positon while she heavily cried. I got up as fast as I could and I ran to her to help her. A fist impacted against my abdomen knocking the wind out of me for a second time and forcing me to fall on my knees.

"Do you dare throw things to a girl?" Asahina-Ni asked, standing in front of me… I tried grabbing her legs, but once again she disappeared… that was her trick… she could appear and disappear at her will, I got this idea from the little experience I had with the use of the TPDD… it looks like hers is modified in a way that allows her to jump in the space-time at will. While this idea brightened my mind, she disappeared and reappeared at least eight times, connecting a successful punch every time. The last time she appeared just in front of me she did a perfect execution of a jumping spinning hook kick that directly hit my chest, making me go flying about three meters and fall on my back. Friend… this girl is giving me a beating worse than my father ever did…

"Everything ends here…" She said getting close to me, laying on the ground, defeated and helpless. It seems she will finish the work that Nagato-Ni could not…

"Really bitch?" Said another voice, this belonged to a guy. It sounds familiar, but I can't really put my finger on it.

An instant later, a guy appeared between Asahina-Ni and I, and without any premises he connected a clean right hook to her check shaking her to the core… I even shook from the strength and the hate with which he discharged the punch on her beautiful face… Asahina-Ni perplexedly looked at the guy, which took advantage of her confusion and grabbed her shoulders, both disappearing from my view. Ten seconds… twenty seconds… thirty seconds… There's noise again!

"Asahina!" I yelled while quickly getting up ignoring the pain from the punches and I arrived until where my brigade partner continued sobbing. "Are you hurt?"

"I… I'm fine…" She responded hiccupping while getting up and hugging her shoulders.

"We have to get help… We'll try to get to Nagato's place… can you walk?"

She assented, took a couple of deep breaths and used me as support to get up. Just when Asahina stood up, the guy from a moment ago reappeared before us… he looked beat up and fell on his right knee as soon as he showed up. He finally exposed his face to me… no wonder his voice sounded familiar… the mocking bastard… Fujiwara.

"Don't say anything… I didn't help you because I wanted to… it was necessary." He said anticipating my questions and making it clear that he would not respond to any of them. Even so, I adventured to ask.

"What happened with… with her?"

"I left her amongst the mangroves of one of the deltas of the Amazons… it will take her some hours to come back…" He lifted his hand and a fine dust fell from it. "I destroyed her TPDD, but she will get a new one in a short period of time and she will not be happy to see us… too much talking, leave."

I felt it would be very odd to thank the guy that tried to kidnap Asahina some months ago, but it would be bad to confront him after he helped us… so I didn't do either, I simply assented and I began to guide Asahina towards Nagato's apartment.

This is the second member of the Brigade SOS-Ni… and damn it, she's evil… Asakura has a lot to explain.

 **Chapter 2**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** The translate work has been amazingly fast. I have to thank to **Luf5** for a really great and fast work. I hope you people got really involved in the history, and don't forget any comment you want to make about anything, we'll be very happy to answer.

 **Translator Notes:** And here's the chapter 2. Were you as surprised as I was to see Fujiwara? Haha. I told you guys the story was amazing and I wasn't lying. You are probably wondering what the hell is going on, but don't despair, you will soon find out what's behind all this craziness. I hope you all are ready for a very exciting ride. Until next chapter!


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

I rang the bell that belonged to Nagato's apartment as fast as I could. I felt a little bad having to drag Asahina all the way here after what we went through, but it seems to me this is the best place to go… she is still trembling, weak and whimpering and I'm uneasy thinking that Asahina-Ni did more to her than just physically hurting her. Nagato or Asakura could give us a good answer to that concern, better than a doctor, according to what I believe.

Once up there, Nagato opened the door and blinked in confusion a couple of times when she saw us. I suppose it was unexpected to her seeing us all dirty and beat up. My face has some bruises that Asahina-Ni left after she mopped the floor with me, Asahina has no marks as visible other than a diminutive blood spillage coming down from her right temple.

"We were attacked." I murmured. "Can we come in?"

Nagato began to walk inside the apartment allowing us to go in. She walked faster than usual and instead of going to the lounge with us, she quickly dodged towards the bathroom. Koizumi was already there.

"What happened?" He suddenly asked with a serious tone.

"Asahina-Ni… that's what happened to us." I responded while I set Asahina on a cushion helped by the esper.

"She's cruel, isn't she?" Asakura said exiting the room in which I slept next to Asahina for three years in one of our trips to the past.

Nagato appeared seconds later with a first aid kit in her hands, maybe it was only my impression, but she seemed apologetic. She got down next to Asahina and opened the kit… She took a sterilized gauze and a tiny disinfectant jar that she kept looking at as if she was seeing a type of artefact from another planet. I felt that if I looked above her head I could see an interrogation sign materializing.

"I'll take care of it." Asakura intervened again taking the kit and leaning in front of the wounded girl.

Nagato assented and got up. An event without precedents then occurred. With a delicateness out of the ordinary, she put her right hand on Asahina's crown and remained like that for some seconds. The initial bewilderment started to become an agreeable surprise. There were neither weird alien conjures nor unintelligible languages… Nagato was simply comforting her… Koizumi openly smiled before such scene… I don't know if I had any expression, but I think that I was left open-mouthed.

"Thank you…" Mumbled Asahina not knowing how to react.

This definitely supports my theory about the still incipient but definite personality of Nagato. Inexpressive, solitary, apparently piercing and without the eagerness to unnecessarily waste any saliva… but attentive, careful and gentle, on her own way of course, with the people close to her. I feel very lucky to be part of the select group of her friends. Miraculous, almost omnipotent and benevolent. I will send a letter to the Vatican asking for her immediate canonization.

"Take deep breaths." Asakura indicated holding Asahina's hands. She obeyed and the alien interface remained looking at her some seconds without moving. "Ready!"

"What did you do?" Asahina doubtfully asked.

"I ran a diagnosis searching for serious damage or strange substances in your organism. Don't fear, there's nothing to worry about." With that said, she began cleaning and healing her wounds.

I asked our hostess for permission to use the bathroom and clean myself a bit. That would also give me some time to reflect alone before our little assembly started. From the moment Haruhi recruited me through the vile act of coercion to be part of her club, I have seen myself in different adventures, some as crazy or dangerous, and it isn't the first that my life is threatened… but this time it feels different… in most of the previous instances where my integrity was compromised, it was because I was in the wrong moment and place… this time, in less than two days there have been two direct and premeditated attempts against me, one involved Asahina as a rebound… besides the latent thread that the arrival of these alter egos will surely represent, there's the constant of the closed spaces… The fact that Haruhi continues to produce them might become an aggravating circumstance to our already complicated current situation… it's my responsibility to procure her tranquility, I feel I owe it to her.

Even with all this in my mind, I abandoned the bathroom a little refreshed and relaxed. Koizumi was waiting for me leaning against the wall in front of the bathroom's door. His habitual smile had come back. I imitated him putting my back against the door that I had just closed and I crossed my arms.

"What's your opinion?" I asked him. He is without a doubt one of the most trustworthy persons when it comes do deduction. I could really use his feedback right now.

"Before I express any opinion… Would you mind sharing with me what happened?" I recounted with detail the events from that day, from my conversation with Nagato and Kimidori, to our encounter with Asahina-Ni, very carefully omitting the incident with Haruhi. As my story was progressing, his expression changed from his appeasable smile to an unrest gesture. "Corresponding the favor, I will share with you the little we know at the Agency." He said after. "There's a fluctuation in the energy, at the beginning we didn't really know what was causing it and we feared something had happened to Suzumiya, we did a deeper investigation and we found out something disconcerting." He graciously moved his bangs before continuing. Those failed metrosexual sharp remarks get on my nerves… it's so disagreeable. "The fluctuation occurred while Suzumiya and you were in the closed space, and it didn't come from her, but from a different source, of similar patterns and dynamics… and with the same power."

"Haruhi-Ni?" I deducted.

"That's what we think, but we didn't have a way to prove it yet. As you know, our powers are directly related with the mood of Suzumiya, that's why we could notice the change. There were irregular combinations in her humor."

"What is she supposed to be feeling when we were in the closed space?" I'm so stupid… somebody should kick me in the mouth for asking that.

"Do you really want me to tell you?" He responded increasing the joy on his facial expression.

"Never mind… let's go the living room, I want to finish with this soon and go home. I'm exhausted."

Once together I noticed that Asahina looked much better. She had even prepared some tea and was distributing it amongst the presents. All five of us sat down as we could around the diminutive center table and we waited for Asakura to get the courage to talk.

"Would you mind if you answer some questions that I prepared in advance?" Koizumi asked raising a hand while taking a small notebook out of his pocket. Asakura assented in conformity and smiled as if she wanted to begin an agreeable gestures competition with the esper. "Where do you come from?"

"It would be imprecise to try to explain where or when I come from. The dimensional planes coexist in the reality despite time and space. However, I can say that I come from a world very similar to yours… in fact, it's the most similar I've seen until today, I could almost swear that it was the same I came from, but it's impossible."

"What do you do to travel from one plane to another?"

"It wasn't possible originally. But at some point in our history, Suzumiya-Ni wished it to be and it became reality. I could copy that ability, I'm the only one, besides Suzumiya-Ni, that can do it independently."

"Why are you here?"

"Suzumiya-Ni wants this world… we could technically say that she wants all reality."

"That sounds very ambitious." I interrupted.

The explanation that Asakura gave us about her presence and that of the Brigade SOS-Ni could be shorten like this: in her world, Haruhi became aware of her potential and she released it. In the beginning it wasn't too bad, but given the natural emotional instability and her specific personality, added to her constant mood changes, she got bored in little time. It was at that moment that she decided to go look for interesting things in other worlds. She made the Brigade something like a squadron of sliders, and up until then there was no problem. They visited some dimensions with a simple eagerness to observe. However, as time went on (never more relative), Haruhi's boredom grew and grew. It got to a point to which she couldn't limit herself to just observe the places they arrived at and started to interact with them, more directly every time, until she finally started to conquer them… it sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it? I mean, if we reunited the individual resources from the five members that conform the brigade, I doubt we would even conquer our locality.

"In reality, it is not as wild. You are forgetting that they know where and how to attack in each dimension." Asakura condescendingly responded to me.

"What do you mean?"

"If you lose your king in chess, what happens?"

"Game over."

"Exactly… they directly go looking for Suzumiya or you, in other words, the main axis that maintains reality or its catalyst." All through my life people have called me many different things but never a catalyst, I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult…

"And when they find them… What happens?" I think I know the answer, but I'd like to confirm it.

"Check mate."

"But" … Asahina timidly intervened… come on, you don't have to raise your hand, we aren't in class… "We hold the believe that the world doesn't depend on Suzumiya… What will happen if they achieve their goal?"

"Suzumiya has an extremely big power and importance when it comes to reality. However, she's also human and therefore, she's mortal. If she dies in the moment in history that she must do it, the world won't suffer any alterations and will continue its path, since its cycle will be completed and it could start again. However, I can say with certainty that if Suzumiya is assassinated or emotionally dejected to levels above what's fixable, the whole dimensional plane would collapse in a paradox. In some cases, she has created minor alternate realities… closed spaces where she installs herself for protection, which end when she dies or she gets bored from them, unfortunately, that also provokes the destruction of her original dimension."

"Have you ever seen any of those scenarios?" Koizumi asked. His smile was absent, as if it had never existed.

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"The tree described variants in sum give a total to this date of two thousand six hundred seventy-three times. In one thousand nine hundred and eight occasions, it has culminated with the death of Suzumiya Haruhi, in six hundred nineteen with the death of…" My name goes here. "… and the consequent emotional dejection of Suzumiya, and in ninety-six occasions with the creation of a closed space."

That's no possible. I simply can't conceive it… this Asakura has the horrible habit like Nagato to give cold and detailed numbers about everything she registers and the summary is simply too much to handle. We all stayed quiet, as if our souls had been stolen, Koizumi seemed to be about to have a nervous collapse, Asahina started to whimper in silence and even Nagato looked overwhelmed.

"Can we avoid it?" I asked as soon as I gained my voice.

"We could this time. I fortunately found you first and I could update you all to be aware. We must be prepared for when they intent to attack you, and believe me when I say they will."

"If they are us ourselves… Shouldn't it be predictable the type of power they have?" Asahina asked. Once again, her hand was raised.

"Nothing further from reality. In fact, it seems to me that you should've realized it already… are you capable of doing what you saw her doing today?"

Asahina lowered her hand and her gaze, ashamed.

"Then show us… what should we expect from each one?" That was me.

"You need to always start from the fact that your counterparts are identical to you all at the primogenitors levels, with variants in each dimension based on the life and the decisions each one had to live, creating variations in the personality or physically. Your other 'you' in the other worlds that exist have some differences, going from small variations in the height or measurements, the intelligence or even the sex or age. Suzumiya Haruhi, however, has provoked one of the first constants in all realities that I've seen: The Brigade SOS is founded on all of them. In all of them she's got different levels of influence on you three," she said directing her talk towards Asahina, Nagato and Koizumi, "and at the same time she receives your influence." She said pointing at me. "Asahina Mikuru-Ni is also an agent coming from the future. When Suzumiya assumed the control of her power, she convinced Asahina-Ni to become a more confident person… that was good at the beginning, but as time went by it degenerated into a shameless and cruel young girl. Before she started her crusade, she stole armament and devices from her own era, she used knowledge implantation methods to become an expert in every martial art and combat and infiltration specialized techniques. From what I can see, she has already given you a demonstration of the emptiness generator and nervous stimulator."

"That was a nervous stimulator?" Asahina asked becoming pale again.

"What's a nervous sti… that thing you're talking about?" I asked hating the feeling that they choose words from the dictionary at random.

"It's an artefact from before my own era… although the details are classified information, its use was abolished before the UN by petition from governments and human rights associations."

"Why did they prohibit its use?"

"Because it's an artefact for torture." Asahina seemed terrorized and nauseated while saying this. "At skin contact, it produces a generalized hyperalgesia state."

"Hyperalgesia?"

"Pain." This time it was Koizumi. "Every nervous terminal in your body tell you that it's suffering from an unbearable pain. Am I wrong?"

"You aren't wrong. As you can see, Asahina-Ni is very dangerous." Asakura continued with that relaxed facial expression while my mind drew a mental picture of Asahina-Ni with a magic wand doing her own version of the _cruciatus_ curse.

That's what Asahina experimented this afternoon… I really feel bad for her.

"What about me?" Koizumi asked recovering his relaxed expression and supporting his head on his palms, laying on the table.

"Your variant is not so different from you… the only thing that changes is that Suzumiya-Ni deposited the combined power of the members of the Agency, making Koizumi-Ni exponentially more powerful. However, just like you, he needs to be inside a closed space to have access to his powers… the bad news is that he can produce his owns closed spaces, even selecting who gets to be inside of them. However, … there's something interesting… you seem like a smart guy… Koizumi-Ni isn't precisely… brilliant."

"Sounds interesting." Koizumi said, turning to Nagato. "I believe it's obvious what the next question is."

"Nagato-Ni is perhaps the most dangerous member of the brigade… many of the actions that Suzumiya-Ni suggested to her contravened many of the form to the parameters imposed by our own version of the EID… so at the end, incited and helped by Suzumiya-Ni, she dismantled the EID, absorbing all its knowledge and power… we could say that Nagato-Ni is the EID by herself…" WOW! Nagato already seems very powerful and she's only a terminal… with that condition, being close to our Haruhi for almost eight months last year caused her, and only her, to provoke a change in the world, and even grown up Asahina admitted that she had too much power… eight months exposed to a capricious and upset Haruhi, but essentially good, caused her a bunch of errors in her database… I cannot imagine an even stronger Nagato, if that is even possible, exposed for who knows how long to an instable and megalomaniac Haruhi… terrifying.

"What can you tell me about my other me?" I asked expecting some exaggerated description… deep down, as strange or dumb as it seems, I wished an extravagant variation of my personality… perhaps in that other dimension I did have some type of power… yeah, it's just a romantic dream, so what? Don't you have any?

"He's exactly like you. In every and each aspect that I've observed."

Fantastic… even coming from a strange world, I still am the same average-height guy, slim, taciturn, with a barely above average intelligence, slightly bitter and with a sick tendency to rationalize everything… normal, in one word.

After that, we discussed how to take precautions from these individuals and we made some decisions to protect Haruhi. Some measures had already been taken and from what I found out, Haruhi and I have been observed since last night, and from tonight on we will have TFEI terminals and members from the Agency watching us at every moment. Enough for a day, I'm hungry and I want to go home.

* * *

I slowly walked next to my bike, frankly, I didn't have the energy neither I felt like pedaling, the sun had settled down on the horizon for a while now. There was an idea drilling my head from the moment I exited the reunion… I had to find a way to protect Haruhi… Don't misunderstand, it's simply logic: I must defend my world, my family, my friends and my life in general, and all that depend on Haruhi's wellbeing… therefore I must protect her to achieve my goal… though I'd lie if I said I didn't wish to do it for her as well. Capricious girl! You are doing it again! The world is in danger and you have no idea in the least. My mind was so occupied with those thoughts that it took me a moment to realize my phone was ringing. Haruhi's name appeared on the LCD. I took the call.

"Are you buys?" She said unnecessarily loud. As it usually goes, she didn't wait for my answer. "I'll see you in ten minutes at the station, I want to tell you something." She immediately hung up.

I don't want to go… I have so much to think about. Resigned I continued walking at the same pace and without altering my direction, I was very close by and in less than five minutes I would be there.

Some meters before arriving to the station I could see her under a street light. She was already looking at her watch with irritation… come on, I arrived before you indicated, give me a break.

"Late! You will be pena…!" When she saw me closer, her expression completely changed and she went pale. In an instant, she had run the distance that separated us. "What happened? Are you ok?"

Ah, yeah… I had forgotten… the bruises from the afternoon fight… fight? I won't be pretentious… the beat up.

"It's not late! I don't want to be penal…! I was robbed and yes, I'm ok."

"Robbed! Unacceptable! Let's go to the police station!" She said taking my hand and dragging me to unknown direction. I should've invented a better excuse.

"That won't be necessary…" I tried to amend.

"You're right! Let's go ourselves and let's give them a lesson!" She said with more energy if that's possible beginning to drag me the other way.

"Haruhi."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, I lied to you, I wasn't robbed… I had a fight." She stopped and gave me a weird look.

"You? Fighting…? But why?"

"It's not important… violence if for idiots and I became one, so I deserve it."

That said, she relaxed and more calmly she took me under the street light to examine my marks. The most painful is the one on my left cheek, very swollen by now, followed by one on my chin on the right side and one on the brow from the same side that was bleeding some hours ago. It will surely leave a scar.

"You shouldn't get into dangerous situations, I wouldn't want to take this image of you with me… the best thing is for you to go home and rest."

She's worried. I can tell from that serious expression that's not common on her… I feel bad to see her like this.

"I'm already here and I already told you that I'm fine… you have something to tell me, right? So, let's go." I told her while I gave her my best smile. She didn't seem too convinced, so I added: "I will even invite you a coffee, but it will be from a can."

She finally smiled in agreement and we started walking towards the park. I get that strange feeling again… I hate feeling like this, so different from usual… and the thing is that I feel inexplicably comfortable, and going by Haruhi's expression, it seems to me she feels the same.

The bench on which we are now seated with such famous cans of coffee has been witnessed of a bunch of my adventures along these almost two years that I've been in high school, is cursorily comfortable and brings back good memories.

"What did you want to tell me?" I asked and a took a sip from my coffee.

"It's about our afternoon talk." I almost spit my drink.

"Ah…! About that…" Damn it, that makes me nervous. "First, I wanted to apologize, I think it was inappropriate and…"

"What are you talking about idiot?"

"About the initiative issue…"

"Initiative…?" She doubted for some seconds. Then, surely once she remembered our incident in the club room, she started intensively blushing in a way I hadn't seen before… and it's natural… I can still feel the comforting heat from her legs around my waist… "No… I'm not talking about that conversation… I'm talking about the other one… the one about the lucid dreams…"

"Oh…" It's horrible to screw up the way I just did and you are left speechless.

But I was talking with Haruhi, she forgot about it in an instant and started to tell me about the experiment she wanted to try. She had had a recurrent dream and was trying to become conscious of it next time she had it.

"Wait a minute." I interrupted. "From what I remember, you had already become aware that it was only a dream, no?"

"Yes, but I want it make it better and… How do you know that?" Shit! I forgot! According to that it's 'her' dream, not 'our' dream.

"Eh… you mentioned it." I said not very convincingly. I feel she wants to cut through me with her gaze.

"What's going on with you lately? You seem distracted or sometimes irritated with no apparent reason…" With no reason? Try to live with yourself for five minutes. "I also think that you look at me a lot…" She said the last part in a whisper barely audible. "Do you have a problem with me?" That's not how her complain usually sound. "… or is there something that you want to tell me?"

In the last days, I have experienced many different physical sensations. I have flown across the air, I've been beaten up, shaken, dropped, I've been left without breath and some other things… When Haruhi asked me the last question, she looked at me in a way she had never done… and I went through all those sensations altogether again and more intensively… surprisingly, it wasn't disagreeable.

"It's not the right time." That's what the voice of my reason said from behind my head. I suppose I should listen to it… there are a bunch and a bunch of things that I'd like to tell this girl, but I wouldn't know how to even start.

"No." I finally said.

"I see." She lowered her gaze. She seemed disappointed. I feel the same.

I looked towards the sky. Overcast. It's a cold day and the wind isn't helping. Haruhi didn't seem to be cold and wore only a sweater, small, but apparently very warm. I like it when girls wear that type of clothes, especially if like Haruhi, they are owners of a good figure. I'm still wearing the school uniform, I wear a wool vest, and huge jacket and a scarf.

"It would be wonderful to see the stars; don't you think so?" I almost unconsciously said… sometimes I feel I'm very repetitive, one day I'm going to make a mistake like that.

Haruhi did something very strange then… she pinched her nose and tried to breath. She did it a second and a third time.

"It's a test." She responded when I asked what the hell she was doing. "To see if I'm really sleeping or awake. If it's a dream, covering my nose shouldn't give issue to breath, if I pinch my nose and the air doesn't go through, then I'm awake."

"Aha." She's nuts… she came defective from the manufacturer.

"It's time to go. Take care of those bruises, I don't want people to think that I have a Hooligan in my Brigade. I see you tomorrow."

A terse and sharp good bye. Not a 'thank you for coming' or 'thank you for the coffee'… although I don't think it could be any other way. I saw her walking out of my visual field on the way to the station without moving from the bench. My phone rang again… it surely was my mother, it's late and I haven't gone back from school… I hope she doesn't get too worried to see me all beat up when I get home. Without checking the phone's caller ID, I directly responded.

"Yes?"

"Where are you?" He sounded desperate, and no, it wasn't my mom, it was Koizumi.

"Close to the station… Is there something going on?"

"Is Suzumiya with you?"

"She was up until a couple of minutes ago…"

"Catch her!" He ordered. "There's unusual activity in her neighborhood! They know her whereabouts!"

"What?"

"Do not let her go home for any reason!"

I hung up without saying goodbye, I got on my bike and I pedaled as hard as I could, if I hurried up, I would catch Haruhi before entering the station and taking the train, because if she does… I decided not to think about that and I concentrated on reaching her.

To think that just some minutes before I considered the way between the park and the station very minimum, today it seems eternal… And there's another point that I must think before finding her… How do I keep her from going home…? I think I got it.

Less than a block from the station I could see her about to go in. I increased my speed.

"Haruhi!" I yelled from the sidewalk, my bike loudly fell next to me while I ran towards the girl. She heard me and turned around, she looked confused.

"What's wrong?" She asked once I finally reunited with her. I had to put my hands on my knees for a few seconds to recover my breath and my strength.

"I ne… need to ask you for something, but before…" I raised my gaze and I put the most serious expression I had. "I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Eh… yeah…"

"Then I need you to do something for me, and I need you to do it without asking anything… can I count on that?"

"Okay…"

"I want you to call home…" Oh, yes, ladies and gentlemen… this will be as bad as it looks… "… and tell your parents…" Are you ready? "… that you will stay at my place tonight."

Silence. A very uncomfortable one.

"What?" After some seconds, her expression changed from surprised to upset. "Are you crazy? I'm leaving" She turned around to begin leaving.

"Haruhi!" I yelled once again and I took her hand making her face me again. "Please! It's important! I'm making an official petition to my brigade leader!"

It was decided… if she didn't accede in this argument, I would hit her in the head and I would take her passed out.

"Fine…" she finally said. She didn't look too convinced from my argument, but rather for the seriousness I imprinted in my words. "But if you have some weird idea in mind, I swear that you will regret it."

Without changing her upset look, she took her phone out and dialed home… Will I regret it? You are wrong, pretty lady… I'm already regretting it.

 **Chapter 3.**

 **End**

* * *

 **Author notes:** Once I wrote this one, the only idea on my mind was: now how all this situation shall end without become in a total embarrassing. Then, I got that there was no way, and it deserves to be that way. SO, just enjoy what comes later, and once again, don't forget of leaving a review. Until next update!

 **Translator Notes:** I'm sorry it took me a couple of extra days to translate this chapter. I moved to a new house last week and I've been extremely busy, but here it is. Things are starting to get very complicated, aren't they? Don't worry, it will only get worse before it gets better. Haha. What do you guys think will happen next? I have a feeling next chapter will get a little heated (wink). Lol. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

The bell rang and my sister left like she had AMRAAM missiles on her feet. Some moments later she came back with the same intensity and yelled at the top of her lungs:

"It's for Kyon! A friend!"

"Well… before I realized it, my primogenitor became a young man… and a popular one from what I see." That's my dad… he could learn some discretion from me. "Is he wanted like this all the time, Haruhi?" Yes, he's talking to Haruhi, who has asked both my parents to call her by her first name. We are having something like dessert after dinner.

"Kind of," she responded with that facility to properly talk to adults, that to this day surprises me.

I snorted like a dying animal and I excused myself to go to the door.

"We see each other again!" Asakura said with her floral smile at the porch. "I brought the things Suzumiya requested from her home." She handed me a pair of bags, the first one seemed to contain clothes and the second one was a school bag. She discretely got closer to me. "You can be safe here today, Nagato has taken the corresponding measures so that for some hours, or perhaps days, they can't find you in the area. In any case, there will be surveillance in the immediate surroundings all night long."

That will explain why there have been police officers patrolling since we arrived home… I could swear I recognized the Tamaru brothers in a police car from one of the patrols. How is it that his is developing in such an extravagant manner? I will explain it next.

* * *

After the harsh remarks from the sudden invitation to my improvised sleep over, Haruhi seemed reflective while she held onto me traveling on the back seat of my bike.

"I'm going to need some things from my house, I don't even have the school uniform or my books, or pajamas."

"And I still need to do homework… plus I must come up with a good alibi from these blows."

By this point, my crazy brigade chief had already relaxed and she spent the rest of the way home in silence, as I said before, she seemed to reflect about some undetermined subject. In one occasion, I caught her covering her nose and trying to breath. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't laugh at me, this is serious." She said and I amplified my smile. She acts like a little girl. To comfort her, I also covered my nose and I tried to breath… what silliness.

"I'm back!" I announced allowing my guest to come in after leaving my bike outside.

"Finally! We were waiting for you to have dinner!" The voice of my mother sounded away in the kitchen. "I will start to serve in a moment!"

"Haruhi!" my sister yelled once she saw her and she returned the greeting. "Dad, mom! Kyon brought Haruhi!"

Then, there was indeed a change in the mood. My dad, who's barely home, came out from the comfort of the couch where he tends to read and my mom from the kitchen while she cleaned her hand with an apron. Haruhi made a proper reverence, showing her good education.

"Good evening. I apologize for intruding." She said with a practiced sweet voice… Lier! Lier!

My mother corresponded the greeting, this isn't the first time they see each other and she welcomed her with pleasure.

"This is Haruhi." My mother explained. "She's Kyon's friend, a very good and close friend." Mom, please… don't give my old man the wrong idea.

"It's such a pleasure!" That's my father, after introducing himself, he added. "You are very pretty… you're doing well boy…"

He didn't finish his sentence. It was then when they finally looked at me, and consequentially, at my wounds.

"Long story, I will tell you tomorrow…" I indicated before they asked me. "You…!" I said talking to my sister "Why don't you take Haruhi to the dining room to get settled at the table to have dinner?" My sister happily obeyed and I was left alone with my parents in the lounge. "I know this will sound a little sudden, but Haruhi will stay the night here… I hope that's not an issue."

"That's not an issue, but… where will she sleep?" My mother asked while taking a closer look at my bruises.

"I will concede my room to her, I can stay on the sofa tonight."

"It sounds good to me… do you want me to tie one of your ankles to the table with the chain from your bike, just so you don't get any bad thoughts in the middle of the night…?" My father said gaining his good sense of humor back. I think I got from him the ability to see the not so bad side of everything.

Solved that issue, they went back to the lounge and I went up to my room to change clothes. Also, to hide anything that needed to be hidden before my guest came in.

"What are you doing little one?" I could hear my mother asked when she went back to the kitchen. It seems like Haruhi is trying to return the hospitality by helping with dinner… that's great… forgive me mother, but Haruhi has a gift in the kitchen, allow her to help you, you won't regret it, you'll see that at the end you can learn a trick or two from her.

My father and my sister were finishing setting the table when I came back down from my room. While walking by the kitchen I could hear a low volume talk between my mother and Haruhi, I decided to listen to a small part.

"That's what happened…" It was Haruhi, I could almost swear she was making a reverence while saying that. "I'm very ashamed Kyon's been hurt because of me."

"Wow… I didn't know he was so courageous."

"He can cross the line into being a daredevil… Did you know that we fell in a small ditch when we went on the summer trip last year? He protected me when we fell and thanks to him I didn't get hurt… we all in the brigade trust him for that, he is a very courageous and loyal guy."

"It seems my boy is a good catch." My mother said… dropping a hint.

"It looks that the brigade girls believe so…" Haruhi responded, reflective. "It's ready! Everybody to the table!"

And like that, we ended with a delicious and very abundant dinner that I attacked with particular enthusiasm. From my poor morning breakfast, I hadn't tasted any food and with everything I thought and did during the day, I could've passed out if I waited fifteen more minutes. For close to thirty minutes we talked about diverse subjects while we digested our food and after that, the bell rang, that's where we started.

* * *

After thanking my mom for the food and cleaning the table, I took the pending homework out. I was exhausted and I had very little energy to fight with silly mathematical problems. I was rubbing my eyes when a dry hit was heard on the table. It was Haruhi's books.

"Only for today I will let you copy the homework, but you must pay for it." Pay for it? Isn't a dinner and lodging enough? "And finish quickly since I want you to show me where I will sleep. I'm tired."

Your orders are my command, your majesty.

"What did you tell my mother about my injures?"

"I told her that you defended me from some malefactors." She said just like that. I didn't dig any further, it is a good story.

After copying without revising the homework, I conducted Haruhi to my bedroom, I told here where each service was in the house and I took some things that I've previously prepared to not get cold on the couch.

"Your room is very common looking… I thought you'd at least have a couple of weird things… what kind of mystery hunter are you?"

"Most people consider it good that a guy from my age has balanced likes."

"I don't like most people."

"That solves an issue then, there is no way you could like me."

"I didn't mean that…" She tried to correct. "I mean, in spite that, you are a good guy."

"Good night, Haruhi."

"Good night."

I stopped before closing the door.

"If you get cold later, you can call me."

"Don't be an idiot!" She said and threw a pillow that hit against the door as it closed.

I revised the things that I needed to have ready next day and I put the notebooks and other things in my backpack, I turned the TV on and I stayed a while randomly changing the channels… there was nothing to watch… what happens if at a certain moment those individuals come here looking for me and looking for Haruhi…? The fact that my parents and my sister are here is starting to disturb me… some way I'm putting them at risk… I should stop thinking about that and try to sleep for now, tomorrow I must get up early and… wait a minute… I need my alarm clock.

With the nuisance of having to climb the stairs again I walked back to my room. I could still see the light under the door, so either Haruhi is still awake or she's so weird that she sleeps with the lights on.

"Come in." It was the answer after knocking a couple of times.

"I only came to grab my alarm clock." I commented. Haruhi was kneeling on the bed and seemed to be fluffing the pillows. Tonight's pajamas are cute… they consist of a top and some cotton shorts, very tiny and white in color… damn it… I honestly don't know what to think anymore every time that I see her in her sleeping clothes…I ironically believe that she looks better with very few clothes on than completely naked and I felt an animalistic urge to throw myself on top of her… gathering all my willpower, I limited myself to take my alarm clock and I said good night again.

"Where will you sleep?" She asked before I left.

"On the couch."

"Is that ok with you? If you want, I can switch places with you."

"Don't worry. It happens often, when we have family visiting I'm the first one that goes thrown out of his bedroom. Although it would be great if we had the sleeping back you took to school."

"How do you know I took a sleeping bag to school?" How can I be so dumb? I did it again!"

"Eh… well… it is obvious, what else could there be in such a big bag?"

"You wouldn't dare check on my things, right?" She asked, getting up and walking towards me. "Because if that was the case, it will be the death penalty!" She stabbed my chest with her index finger.

The pain was so acute that I couldn't help but to drop on my back with a slight whimper. I hadn't noticed how hurt the last kick Asahina-Ni connected this afternoon had left me. Haruhi got scared and she kneeled in front of me.

"Do you want to kill me with that finger?" I faked to avoid any more explanations that I didn't have neither want to give.

"What happened to your chest?" Just the way it always is, she didn't wait for my answer. In just one movement she unbuttoned the first two buttons from my pajamas. I was just as surprised with the result.

My pectoral, almost in its totality had a monstrous hematoma painted blue, Haruhi looked at it and again her expression became worried. She delicately touched it, trying not to cause me any more pain.

"It looks like a huge blow." I said without knowing what else to say.

"How did you get it… or who gave it to you?"

"The guy had some gigantic hands"

"This is serious, stop being an idiot… do you want to go to the doctor?"

"There's no need, I will be fine in a couple of days, really… and by the way, you shouldn't dress like that while trying to rip my clothes off when I'm so weak and defenseless."

"Idiot."

* * *

I will barely get eight hours of sleep… I believe my body will hurt in an indiscriminately manner tomorrow… let's take advantage of each very valuable minute to sleep… perhaps instead of setting my head on the table, I should go back lay down on the couch and… set my head on the table…? Oh… I don't think I'm on my couch. I raised my head and I could see the back of Haruhi, while she peaked through the window of the club room. This is the second closed space of the week.

"Hi." I casually said after yawning and rubbing my eyes.

"Would you believe I'm sleeping in your house?" She asked me, imagining that she was talking to an oneiric creation.

"I hope that with me."

"No." She laughed. "Although it wouldn't be so bad…" She isn't being serious, right?

"We have to talk." She said while she set herself in her brigade leader chair.

"About what?"

She propelled herself with her feet until her chair hit the right wall of the room and she relaxed her posture. Damn it, I love those pajamas.

"About your initiative…"

I would be an absolute liar if I said that I don't feel like giving this scene a conclusion. Slowly, but decisively, I got up from my chair until I stood in front of the girl. I took her wrists just as I did in the afternoon and I kneeled in front of her… She softly surrounded my waist with her beautiful legs.

"What do you want to tell me?" I asked feeling how her breathing started to get agitated.

"Ah, yeah… I was telling you this afternoon… You don't have the courage to d…!"

I didn't let her finish. It took her some seconds to match the intensity of the answer to the kiss I was giving her, she struggled a little at first, but then she started to cooperate.

"So, you want to see how much initiative I have… well, here I go." This is the first time I try something like this, and I have consciously thought about it… so she better like it.

I started to kiss her neck, that aroma, so beautiful that can intoxicate after a while. I rapidly went over the groove of her breasts without taking that cute top off… I want to keep that image in my head when I get out of here… I began to go down her abdomen… her navel… the low abdomen…

"What are you doing…?" She asked vexed when I started to kiss with delicacy her mound of Venus over the shorts.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Something weird…"

"Oh, no… I will start doing the weird thing now."

I simply pull the shorts cloth to the side. Since they're made from cotton, it didn't represent much problems… I began to softly kiss her vulva, getting used to the taste… it would be illusionary to say it tastes like candy… but I must say that it isn't bad.

"Stop doing that… it feels strange…" As soon as she finished that phrase, I took the next step. I quit the kisses and I started to caress her with my tongue… "No, please stop…" She is now covering her face with her hands… sometimes she separates her fingers to look at me while I continue with my chore. And I even went further… this time I introduced my tongue inside her… listen… it isn't so bad… in fact it does taste good… although I believe that this is more in my head than in my taste, but it's very agreeable either way. I kept going for several minutes doing this… Haruhi didn't cover her face anymore, but she did have her hands over her mouth and I could eventually hear her muffled her moans… I think… no, I'm convinced she is liking it… a lot. At a certain point I was barely moving, it was her that shook her hips over my face. And a little after, she didn't care anymore… She incorporated half way and grabbed my hair and put pressure on my face against her crotch, barely allowing me to breath. "Ah!" Good, I hit a sensible spot. Go get it! I can feel Haruhi's agitated breathing and accelerated heart while she gets closer to the culminant point…wow, that was fast… "N-no… don't keep going… I'm going to…" Do it… that's my only purpose. "S-stop it! AH!" Where's the congruency? You ask me to stop, but won't let my face get away from you… "Kyon!" Yes? "K…KYON!" I must express that if fills me with joy to feel how all her body shakes and her breathing breaks… all of this while she says my name… for heaven's sake, where did all this wetness come from…?

"Did you like it?" I asked while she laid down again in her chair… she seemed surprised.

"Idiot."

"Do you still think I'm lacking initiative?" I asked while I held her wrists again.

"Absolutely… you are such a bland guy." She defiantly responded while we went back to the original position. Her legs again surround my waist… I lie, my hips… wait a minute! Before I could notice, she had used her legs to leave me without pants… OK, then what follows…

I started to penetrate her, slowly and tranquilly… it will be for a moment, because I know she likes everything fast and intense.

"Kiss me."

"You don't mind that my lips taste like you?"

She didn't reply, she simply freed her wrists and surrounded my neck with her arms forcing me to kiss her. Without noticing, we had already intensified the rhythm and frequency of the charges. I can't stand seeing these pajamas she's wearing… they're so cute and make her look so sexy… I held her by the waist elevating even more her hips and allowing me to deeper penetrate her. She made a pleasure exclamation and started to circularly move her hips… God, I'm going to go crazy! I got her closer to me and her left leg went up over my right shoulder… over my shoulder, friend, that is flexibility… and without quitting my movements, as rhythmically as her own movements allowed me, I began to kiss her and bite the calf that is next to my face… my goodness, it seemed that each millimeter of the body of this young girl was eatable.

"Can you imagine if we were doing this in my bedroom?" I asked, she kept her eyes closed.

"Your parents could hear us…!" She said imagining the scene… a tremulous smile drew on her face.

"Or my little sister could come in…"

"And we should do it on the floor, your bed horribly squeaks"

"And as quietly as possible…"

"That's easy…" She said.

"Really?" In the next act, I made a movement that I know she loves I do when we are in this position.

"AH! That's cheating!" She told me with reproach.

"Then practice so it doesn't take you by surprise." And I did it again... accepting the challenge, she tried to keep her voice as low as possible and she made faces trying to avoid moaning… however, my adventurous game was making her reach a new orgasm… Damn it, I'm good!

"AH…! K-kyon…! Don't… don't stop!" Only dead. "Don't stop! Donnn…!"

I could clearly feel how her inside constricted and retreated, her neck was rigid while she let a little scream out and some tears threaten to come out her eyes… it has been one of the most intense ones I remember… and I'm about to catch up to her.

"Haruhi…"

"Are you going to finish?" She told me almost with some sweetness when she saw my face…

"Yeah…"

"Go ahead then…" She turned her head to the left… with her right hand she took her hair… and put it up, doing a small pony tail with her fingers… How is it possible such nerve…? Those clothes… that hair… I couldn't take it anymore. Considering that I had that uneasiness since the afternoon, let's say that it accumulated in me… the result is one of the most 'abundant' orgasms I've had… She is feeling it and I know for her facial expression that she is also enjoying it… "Kyon… this is so much…"

"It's your fault…"

It took us some minutes to recover our breaths and our composure… after that, I looked for the sleeping bag and I used it to sleep a bit… it was an exhausting working day today, but at the end I was well rewarded… this is unfair, she didn't do anything and she's also getting an award… and just when I was reflecting on that, Haruhi covered her nose and tried to breath.

"I knew it!" She triumphantly said.

Without her watching, I did the same… I surprisingly noticed that even when covering my nose, I could cleanly pass air… this is weird… is this a dream or a closed space…? I will ask Koizumi tomorrow.

Haruhi laid down in a fetal position with her back towards me. I imitated her and I laid down uniting my body with hers and embracing her by the waist, my head is fitted in between her neck and her pate, the aroma from her hair fills my lungs and relax my spirit. I simply am fulminated and I only wish to already sleep at this stage.

"And will you only sleep?" She asked when she felt how my breathing was becoming deeper as the minutes went by.

"It has been such a long day…"

"Don't be so lazy… we still have some time…" She said turning her head without being able to completely turn towards me, she stayed with her eyes targeting the ceiling. Her left ear was almost in front of my face.

"No! Don't do that!" She discretely laughed when I began to nibble and kiss the aforementioned ear. I did it for some minutes, and as I was doing it, her laugh started to change and the game to take other tones.

"What would happen if in the middle of the night I quietly infiltrate myself in my bedroom and I do this while you sleep…?" I whispered in her ear, inviting her to use her imagination again.

"I would beat you to death, not without first screaming loudly enough to wake the emperor up and I'd call the police."

"And what if I do this…" I asked while I extended the kisses towards her neck and pate.

"Perhaps I would think twice before calling the police…"

"And if I do it like this?" I said without stopping the kisses, but starting to delicately caress her vulva.

"We would do it again… and then I'd beat you to death." I felt ready to die. "Do me again…"

* * *

I woke up laying down on my couch, not recognizing it at first, since I wasn't used to it. My exhaustion was such that it conceded less than two minutes of vigil before Morpheus came back to me. A simple look at the alarm clock informed me that I had some four more hours to sleep, so I abandoned myself to the benefits of sleep.

The alarm clock pulled me back to reality at seven o'clock. God, I never woke so tired and sore in my life before, only trying to incorporate myself demanded a titanic effort. An agreeable sweet aroma made me go to the kitchen. Haruhi and my mother were already preparing breakfast, my sister talked so happily with both that she had forgotten to wake me up as she's used to. By this time, Haruhi was already showered and in uniform.

"Good morning." I mechanically said while entering the kitchen.

"You better take a bath, and fast, we're running late and… you look terrible." Haruhi said pointing at me with the turner with which she was turning the pancakes.

"Haruhi had the nice gesture to leave the bath prepared for you, go quickly so we can have breakfast." My mother complemented… there was something rare about her, she didn't even greet me back… I mean, no one did and it doesn't surprise me from Haruhi, but my mother…

Faithful to his habits, my father would've left since five in the morning or something like that… I went upstairs to see if the contact with the water would give me some of the lost lucidity.

Damn it, I really do look bad. The hematomas on my face have turned dark, the dark circles under my eyes would make Lucas Adams envious and there are dry tears in my yes. On top of that I feel as if between the day before yesterday and today I've lost a couple of pounds.

A little more recovered, clean, changed and aromatized I went back to the kitchen, and it was breakfast what really return my soul to my body. Why don't you dedicate yourself to this Haruhi? I'm sure you'd make a considerable fortune in no time.

"Haruhi…" My mother began after breakfast was over. "Are you needing Kyon after classes? I'd like him to come home early today. I have to talk to him." What is this…?

"Eh… sure… I will send him home as soon as classes are over."

* * *

Minutes after, Haruhi thanked the shelter and the hospitality on the porch of my house while I took my bike. It was until that moment in which Haruhi, my sister and I left home that I noticed a particularly intense gaze from my mother towards me. We walked some blocks until my sister found her school friends, she said goodbye leaving me alone with my brigade leader.

"Get on." I indicated her to begin the bike trip to the bike parking lot close to school. My tiredness and pain couldn't have been more evident, since she made me stop barely some blocks ahead after an embarrassing performance.

We are in a small curve on the way, it's not busy and there's a gigantic jacaranda tree that shelters with its shade a small bench at the bottom of the hill.

"Forget it, we will never make it." She said jumping off the back seat of the bike. "I'll peddle, if I let you do it, we will end with broken legs." Without offering much resistance I ceded the bike. She set herself in place and asked me to get on after. "Hold on tight! We will go very fast!"

I smiled at such comment and the perspective of a violent trip. I set myself as best as I could and I put my hands on her shoulders. She turned to see me as if she was dealing with a mentally challenged person.

"What part of 'tight' didn't you understand, idiot?"

"Oh… would it be better like this?" I took my hands off her shoulders and I put them on her waist. Without realizing it, I set my hands over her abdomen in the same position in which we slept last night in the closed space. My torso was next to her back and I even set my head behind her neck. Through her hair, I could see her left ear, still pinkish due to the special attention I gave it during the night. Her heart suddenly accelerated… I, too, feel particularly moved with the feeling… she doesn't know that it's a memory for me. "Should we leave?" I pressed without much eagerness.

She turned around to look at me again, but being careful enough to keep the position in which we were. That look again… confused and intense…

"Do you know you have very pretty eyes?" She asked after some seconds of looking at me, catching me by surprise… I would've never expected a comment like this from her…

"They are a gift from my mother." I sarcastically responded

She innocently laughed at my response and murmured some insult like the those with which she tends to call me all the time… and that's how it happened. It wasn't surprising or violent… her left arm had risen towards her back touching my chick… a moment later I had the reasoning that all that garbage of the brigade proceeding from an alternate dimension, the beaten given by Asahina-Ni, the evil anti-Nagato, the exhaustion and the pain… everything could and should go to hell, nothing mattered to me anymore in the slightest.

Words are short to explain what was happening, but it could be interpreted as her lips dancing with mine… and it wasn't one of those horrible modern dances… it was more like the Pastorale de L'Arlesienne*… grandiloquent, intense, powerful, and even yet, peaceful and calm… it lasted only some seconds. I won't say that it felt eternal or that it was too short… it lasted what it had to last.

"That's my revenge…" She said once she turned her back on me again.

"Revenge from what?" I asked in a low voice.

"From a bad dream I had about you long time ago… Hold tight!"

With that said, the bike's front tire elevated almost a meter in the air and when it landed we went at full speed towards school… I didn't know my bike could go that fast.

* * *

I spent the major part of classes sleeping, I only had fifteen minutes of true vigil during lunch time, which by the way, due to my mom's courtesy, I shared with Haruhi, and as soon as my bento was empty, I went back to exhaustedly collapse on my desk. When the end of the school day arrived, the force of habit guided my feet towards the old building.

"No… you don't have any obligations at the club today. Your mother said that she wanted you to get home early and you need to do so." Haruhi said while writing 'No activities today' with a marker on a piece of paper. "I will put it up in the lounge of the club after finishing class chores…"

"Haruhi… about the invitation to my home last night…"

"Forget it… I suppose you needed someone to justify the bruises you have… although you still owe me that explanation… we will talk about it later."

"Okay… about this morning…"

"Hurry up and go home!"

I didn't insist. As erotic and intense as your dreams may be about a person, it's embarrassing talking to her when she steals a kiss in the real world… We must clear this up as soon as possible or this issue will get even more complicated.

Finally, listening to her indication, I began to walk home. I hadn't even left the building when the guy with the eternal smile intercepted me.

"Does it bother you if I take you home, I'd like to talk a bit with you." Koizumi said raising a hand, making the black taxi of always, already with my bike on the roof, come pick us up.

We got in the vehicle. Given that now we were in a car, the trip home would be much faster, because of that, Arakawa (at the steering wheel) decided to take a longer route.

"I suppose that you got me here because you need to tell me something, right?" I asked.

"That's right… am I that predictable?"

"You never change your methods, you should be more original sometimes."

"You're right… anyway… what I have to inform you about is good news. Last night, in a joint operative between the Agency and the EID we were able to block the intents of Nagato-Ni to find Suzumiya through the Modular Scanner via."

"What's that?" I asked without really wanting him to answer me.

"Deep explanations wouldn't make any sense; the important part is that Suzumiya could go back home tonight without any considerable risks."

"I'm glad to hear that… I need to sleep, or I will never be able to recover from the last hours."

"There's another thing I wanted to consult with you… What happened…"

"Last night?" I completed. "Another closed space… I thought you all noticed without needing to ask." I continued aggravated. "And I also thought that you were intuitive enough to realize that it makes me very uncomfortable to talk about that subject."

"My apologies if I've provoked you to misinterpret my question… in effect, I know about the closed space, but that isn't what I wanted to ask you. Today, between seven twenty-five and seven thirty in the morning, there was a fluctuation in Suzumiya's mood, with a very short duration, but that has left a sequel that still endures until this hour. As far as we know, at that time you two should've still been together… what happened?"

"None of your business." I piercingly said and I turned to the window.

"I supposed you'd answer something like that." The esper said increasing his bothersome smile. "So, I will be the one to give you a demonstration."

Minutes after, Arakawa stopped the taxi on one of the highest points of the hill, where many kilometers away, towards the west, the sea can be seen. The effect of which Koizumi was talking about jumped at sight. The sun still had about two hours left of life, however, the horizon was already painted in an intense orange… that's not so weird, the strange part is that at different altitudes of the sky, atmospheric perturbations in very intense and varied colors could be appreciated… One could say they were boreal auroras…

"How long has the sky been like this?" I asked.

"Since the time I indicated, it's barely visible now, but throughout the morning it was truly scandalous. The Agency did what it could to convince the media that it was a normal phenomenon given the season… by the way, I don't know if you noticed that the sky isn't even a bit overcast."

I didn't respond. The truth is that I was enthralled with the spectacle, although weaker by the minute, still very attractive. If you fill your mind with good emotions, Haruhi can do truly wonderful things… What must have her alter-ego done to transform into such an impious that searches for her alternate 'I's' to kill them? Kyon-Ni must be an authentic son of a b… oh well…

"Koizumi… Have you heard of the breathing test for lucid dreams?" Of course he has…

"Only a little bit actually. What about it?"

"The closed space is supposedly a reality equal to the one we are in, right?"

"Yes…"

"Haruhi and I did the breathing test and the test failed, as if we were dreaming instead of physically being in the closed space… she has been annoying with the subject for some days now." Koizumi thought for a moment and replied:

"It's a blockage."

"Explain yourself."

"As you well know, Suzumiya needs to back her thoughts up with common sense knowledge, despite her immense power and her capacity to modify reality, she is strongly tied to reason. That allows us the special beings to exist, but at the same time, it protects her from knowing us and creating a conflict between her reality with what she believes to be a fantasy. I suppose that she made possible the condition of breathing with a covered nose inside the close space to demonstrate to herself that it's a dream."

"As always, everything moves at the rhythm of her whims… take me home, I need to sleep… I also need to talk to my mother about a still undefined subject."

* * *

Koizumi and Arakawa politely said goodbye to me after taking my bike off the taxi roof, leaving me at less than a block away from my house and then they left.

"I'm back!" I announced once I crossed the porch. My mother was waiting already for me at the lounge. My sister was nowhere to be found.

"Please." She said pointing to the couch in front of her, the same one on which I had slept the previous night.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked a little concerned.

"I don't know… that's what I'm trying to find out."

Let me point out that the pretentious language matter, I obtained from her… if you feel that my language could sometimes be scathing, she simply is lethal with her words… I'm afraid…

"Where were you in the middle of the night last night?"

Shit!

"Right here, asleep."

"Don't take me for a fool, Kyon…"

"I'm not…"

"Last night I came downstairs to grab some water at around one in the morning… you weren't here…"

"Ah…! I had to use the bathroom once." I lied. "Perhaps it was during that interval that you didn't see me here."

"Only if you were in the bathroom for almost thirty minutes… I stayed here more or less that amount of time watching TV, I desisted when I didn't see you get back." She got me… my silence supported any theory that she was formulating at this point. "Son…" Her voice didn't sound incriminatory, that calmed me a little. "What are you guys up to?"

"Who?"

"Haruhi and you…?"

 _Touché…_

 **Chapter 4.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author notes:** Well, the thing is that I'm a little embarrassed for this chapter in particular. Not in the bad way, it is just bed chat always become as a delicate subject, but I hope you enjoyed it. I want to thank you again for giving a chance to this story, for favorite it and for the reviews that we are receiving, we really appreciate it. So, don't hold back and review us whatever is in your mind. Until next update!

Oh, by the way! There was a musical reference to youtube, but I decide to just left the name of the piece, and that's all, at least for now! See you!

 **Translator Notes:** Wow, that was a hard chapter to translate. I blushed through most of it. Lol No seriously, I love translating this story and this chapter was very fun to translate. Kyon and Haruhi are sexual freaks it seems. Haha. I remember when I first read this chapter I couldn't stop thinking how accurate Kyon's personality was portrayed, specifically when he's having all those sarcastic thoughts even when he's having sex. Pepsipez is such an amazing writer!

I'd like to give a shout out to Ghost Man for his comments, Pepsipez and I really appreciate them. Also, Stephen Prince, I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter. I also always thought that it could perfectly work as a stand-alone one-shot.

Pepsipez tells me the reads counter does increase so I'm very happy to know people are in fact reading the story. I'd love, love to hear your guys' comments, so I hope you stop being so shy and leave some comments, even if it's just to say hi. Until next chapter!


	6. Chapter 5

**I suppose that you eventually do things while listening to music… I do it all the time and sometimes that's where some of my ideas come from. Part of the events from today's chapter I wrote inspired by a couple of musical pieces, a Vivaldi classic, majestically interpreted by Herbert Von Karajan (direction) and Anne-Sophie Mutter (Violin) and a refried of that classic, but interpreted by Yanni and his musicians. I mark it in the chapter like this:**

 **(1)** _ **L'estate in G minor, Op. 8-2, RV 315- Allegro non molto**_ **www. youtube watch?v=EtMS9NfyXdw &feature=related**

 **(2)** _ **The Storm**_ **www. youtube watch?v=SSrH_oqnrl0**

 **Once again, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I am having a great time writing this story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5.**

Alarm clock. Seven in the morning. I woke up this Friday still shaken up by my mother's questions... although it doesn't seem as if she were mad at me… she seemed worried… fortunately, she ensured me that as long as I couldn't give her a clear answer, she wouldn't tell my father of whatever it was that was happening. This makes me even more nervous, I don't know how to justify those missing hours… If only my mother knew that her suspicious aren't as unjustified… if only Haruhi knew… However, these past three days have been very peaceful, even with our little contingency with the Brigade SOS-Ni, up until today particularly calm and quiet… the one who won't stop moving in her chair, as usual, is Haruhi... it is very hard to keep secrets from the people you care about and I must lie to my mother and Haruhi... it's not that I don't care about the second one, but... oh, it doesn't matter anymore, take it as you want.

* * *

My mood has been declining as the last days have gone by due to that situation, even if all my blows have almost healed and all that. Haruhi is convinced that everyone, not just me, is hiding something from her, and at random times she attacks us with out of this world questions, with the only purpose to destabilize us and make us fall into exposing our lies. As it is expected, she hasn't obtained even a slight mistake from Nagato. Let's not talk about Koizumi... when it comes to Asahina, every time she's more fearful of the next question. I'm simply confused, and I answer as randomly as she asks.

"I'm going to figure it out, Kyon, and I will make whoever is responsible pay..." She murmurs after stabbing me with her pen during last class.

"You're becoming paranoid... What could we be hiding from you?"

"A surprise party..."

"Don't get offended, but I don't even know when your birthday is..."

"Today I will erase all my doubts, I can guarantee you that..."

Somebody save my soul...

With that tenor, we went out towards the club room. Haruhi made me carry a box not so big, but very heavy.

"I asked the others to arrive fifteen minutes after the usual time to allows us to prepare... I have the impression that I have infiltrated people in my brigade... one of you is hiding something from me, surely to give a low blow to our organization..." She looked at me with her serious face. "It wouldn't be you, right?"

"Who knows? I could be the genius behind the whole operation to make you go crazy... wait a minute, that's already done..."

"Idiot."

Some minutes later after arriving at the club room, I found myself hanging black and thick curtains over the ample window at the end of the room, while Haruhi did the same on the small windows above the door. The room became very dark after that. From the box, she took the pieces to put together a desk lamp of high luminosity... I think I know what she pretends... my suspicions were confirmed when she put on the ribbon with the legend "Ultra-Detective."

The brigade was reunited a little after that.

"W-what's going on?" Asahina asked, just like me, presaging the worst.

"Well... this promises to be interesting..." Koizumi said without losing composure.

I believe it's pointless to say that Nagato didn't react and arrived searching for her corner of always, with a new and heavy book in her hands.

"Today, I will conduct an interrogatory to each one of you... I have the strong feeling that you are hiding things from me and that is unacceptable... so I will find who among you is lying and serious measures will be taken against that person..." Haruhi said from her chair once we were all present. "So, I will start with you... Mikuru! Sit right here!" She ordered, making Asahina jump and pointing a folding chair to her, now in front of her desk. "Everyone else out until I'm done with her!"

The rest of us got up and we saw Haruhi run the curtains until the dorm was left in the darkness. She indicated to us to turn the light off on our way out and she turned the very potent desk lamp on, making Asahina let a small scream out.

"Do you think it's a good idea to leave her alone with Haruhi?" I asked Koizumi feeling a little guilty.

"Without a doubt, she will not obtain any information from her."

"How can you be so sure..." I don't underestimate Asahina or anything like that, but Haruhi is simply too much for any of us... perhaps not for Nagato, but for the rest of us, yes."

"The place, or better said, the time where Asahina proceeds from has many devices to avoid information leaks, there are some that are in reality extreme, that's why I can assure that from Asahina's mouth, no information that risks the status quo will come out."

I wasn't satisfied with the words from the esper, and I had to spend a long half an hour to clear my doubts. After that time, Asahina left the room completely pale.

"K-Koizumi, it's your turn..." She said in a thread of a voice.

"Wish me luck... perhaps I'm the infiltrated agent after all." He made a pose like the leading man of a teenage movie.

Asahina was still strongly scared to even try to understand the joke. Nagato without a doubt had understood, but I challenge you to make her laugh... I didn't laugh because it didn't seem funny to me in the slightest.

"What did she ask you?" I said after allowing the visitor from the future to calm down.

"Very rare things... she asked me who my boss was and what his intentions were... She then asked me what year I was coming from and what was my true age..."

Amongst all the things I admire about Haruhi, one is her incredible intuition... if she would've taken this more seriously some time ago, this pantomime would've ended way sooner...

"And just now is when she comes up with this silliness..." I said, resigned.

"It's natural, no?" Asahina absently responded.

"Why do you say that?"

"Suzumiya can feel that there's danger, a threat... however, she can't place it... she must be feeling a lot of anxiety."

I think I understand what she says. If she is as perceptive as I think she is, Haruhi must have a lot of weight on her shoulders right now, on top that we haven't had the conversation about the scene from Tuesday morning yet, that continues to keep me awake at night... I'm worried about more or less the same things, but you must add the already known intentions of our antagonist brigade... and all of this, keeping it a secret from her.

Before the predicted time, Koizumi abandoned the club room with his smile of always.

"It looks I'm not an agent from evil. Nagato, come in please."

Nagato limited herself to enter the darkness of the club room, closing immediately the door behind her.

"Any questions out of the usual?" A shot the esper.

"You'd get surprised. She asked on what level of my organization I was and what headquarters of said organization was closer."

"Don't you think that she is getting dangerously close to the truth?"

"Perhaps... although I got the impression that not all the ideas she's got are her own... perhaps someone, at some point, gave her a clue of our real identities..."

That sounded like an accusation. The worst part is that it has some true to it. A little more than a year ago I tried to tell Haruhi all the truth, but my words were rejected without mercy.

In less time than predicted, Nagato reappeared, stoic and immovable... she limited herself to point indicating that I was next.

Stage fright... yes, once again. Why would I be scared, you will wonder, if I am the only one here without a secret identity, without silliness of time travel or magic powers, whether from earth or space. I believe that the answer sticks out. Firstly, it's the fact that I am the most normal of the group... I mean, Asahina has ways (I ignore which ones) so no information or not wanted data gets leaked. Koizumi is a master of the vile art of deceiving, I have no doubts that he can outsmart a lying test wearing that bothersome copyrighted smile. Let's not talk about Nagato, she's simply further away from trues or lies, I doubt Haruhi was able to even get her to say a couple of words. Secondly, the heaviest and inescapable of all trues: out of the four, I am the one that has lied to her and kept the most secrets from her the most...

"What are you waiting on?" Haruhi asked from inside the room when noticing my indecision.

Armageddon. That would be fine, however... How do you beg God when it's he... she, who calls you to appear?

The clubroom is dark and it has a dismal aura... to think that less than four days ago it witnessed one of the most special moments of my life sounds crazy... when I closed the door behind me, I had to use as guide my knowledge on the layout of the furniture to avoid tripping with anything. I found the seat that corresponded me and as soon as I sat down, around three hundred watts fully hit my face. I could barely see Haruhi's blurred silhouette behind the lamp.

"Tell me Kyon... if that's your name..." Of course it isn't, you stupid... that's the nickname with which everyone daily humiliates me. "What kind of agent are you and who do you work for?"

"You're taking this game too far... How far do you pretend to go?"

"It's me who asks the questions!"

"Well you should stop doing it! This is ridiculous!"

"If it is so ridiculous, why can't I stop feeling so uneasy?" She said with anger badly contained. "Something bad is happening! It's killing me not to know what it is...!" She lowered her voice. "...and to think that you are hiding it from me."

Notice that she put particular emphasis on 'you're hiding it from me,' she isn't talking about the brigade. She's talking about me. I was left without a good answer. Haruhi is acting weird... I can say that my theory is confirmed that behavior can be bow down due to a pair of things: fair and pain... unless, of course, you're an alien. I don't like seeing her like this... I must solve this.

"Haruhi... forget it... there's no mysteries out there... just let time fix whatever is making you feel bad." Like always...

"Let time...? you don't understand me... I thought that at least you would..." That hurt... "I feel as though something very bad is about to happen to us... I can't stop thinking about that..."

"Haruhi…"

"I also can't stop thinking... about what happened the other day, when we were coming from your house..." More than worried, she sounded upset at this stage.

"We could talk about that now..." I, too, feel that uneasiness.

"No... there's only something I want to know..." She stood up from her seat and walked to where I was. With her characteristic strength, she held me by my cheeks, forcing my face to be a few centimeters away from hers, I felt my neck wanting to give to the strength. "Amongst all the members of the brigade... can I trust you?"

Only then I observed her expression... she truly seemed lost and afraid.

"Yes." I responded without a doubt.

She relaxed a little and released me, leaning against the desk in front of me.

"You promise?" She asked, calmer.

"Of course."

She stayed some minutes without moving. She seemed to very deeply reflect about something. Then, she turned the lamp off... the interrogatory had ended. The room was completely left in the darkness. I expected to hear Haruhi's steps getting closer to the curtains or the switch to end with the penumbra, but some seconds went by and neither one happened.

A little later, I felt again her hands on my face, but in a different tone... and she did it again... she kissed me again... long and sweetly... here, they are much better than in the closed spaces... I stood up from my chair and I held her by the waist...

I feel guilty. She is vulnerable right now... and I lied to her again.

Some minutes later, the curtains had been opened and the light was turned on again. The day is overcast and I could hardly know at wich point in the sky the sun was located, but it should be close to sunset. The club members are again reunited and in our usual spots... despite the conclusion of the interrogatories, an uncomfortable uneasiness continue to exist... What's wrong with me...? I've been kissed twice by a beautiful girl and I don't feel happy in the least... well, the kisses were good, but the context is really maddening.

It was a long afternoon and little comfortable... I wasn't in the mood to play with Koizumi. Asahina looked scared and didn't raise her gaze from her hands, together on top of her legs. Nagato simply read, unexpressive... Haruhi looked with boredom at the PC monitor.

At this stage, I thought things couldn't get any worse... I'm so naïve!

* * *

Nagato and Koizumi stood up like they each had springs on their butts, making the other three members of the brigade jump in surprise. I looked at Koizumi's face... I had never seen him so pale, it reminded me of Asahina in the filming of our horrible movie.

"What's happening?" I asked him, feeling a hole in my stomach. There was no answer. I turned to Nagato then. She looked at me, immutable as always and she limited herself to point to the window. I walked some steps to look through it... Haruhi did the same.

The only light on in all the school was the one in the club room. Not only the school, but all the city was turned off... there was no people in the building and one couldn't even hear the trill of a bird, there was no wind, the sky, gray before and overcast, now was lead colored and monochromatic.

"What... what is this? What is happening?" Haruhi anxiously asked... "And what is that over there?" She topped it off pointing to a green lit point that was coming at full speed at a distance of several kilometers from us still, but directly towards the school.

I turned towards her, I suppose that my face must also have an expression full of horror, despite the fact, she started to get excited, how can she get excited in that way at whatever it is happening... I forgot it is Haruhi, if it's weird, it's good.

This thought was cut off by my desperation when I saw her slowly close her eyes and lose her balance...

"Haruhi!" I ran to catch her before she fell on the floor. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"She won't wake up, Kyon..." That was Asahina, I turned my head towards her and she still had her right arm extended towards where Haruhi had been standing seconds before. "I didn't hurt her, I only put her to sleep... she must not know..." This hiding game is driving me up the wall.

"Koizumi! Explain this closed space!" I ordered.

"Suzumiya didn't create it..." He responded, barely recovering from the surprise. "I think that the answer will arrive along with that suspicious green light..."

"Let's go upstairs..." I indicated. "Whatever it is, it's better if we aren't in this room."

I set Haruhi in one of the folding chairs and I supported her head on her arms, in a way that she was as comfortable as possible. Some moments later, the four of us ran upstairs to arrive to the roof of the old building, parallel to the regular classrooms.

(1)

The green light caught up to us in little time. It was a sphere of light of about ten meters in diameter that went around the building where we were for a few times, making the windows and treetops shake. It finally stopped several meters away over the building in front, and the green light started to disperse. At the center of mentioned sphere, a man appeared... a young man in fact... He stayed floating in the air, with grace, and made a dramatic movement to remove the bangs of his forehead... too ceremonious... and a smile that bothers me daily drew on his face... yes, he's an esper.

"We finally meet!" He said pointing at me, since I was in the front of the group. "Today, we will finally measure forces and we will see, out of the two, whose powers are superior! I must warn you that I've been blessed by a God and my power knows no limits!"

Why the hell is he telling me that...? I cleared my throat and I raised my right arm a little, pointing with my thumb to Koizumi... He can't be that stupid, right?

After alternatively looking at Koizumi and me for some seconds, Koizumi-Ni realized his mistake...

"Oh..." It was what he could say. He slightly turned in such a way that Koizumi was in front of him. "We finally meet! Today, we will finally measure forces and we will see, out of the two, whose powers are superior! I must warn you that I've been blessed by a God and my power knows no limits!"

Was it necessary to repeat it? I thought that Asakura was exaggerating when she said the he wasn't very brilliant... He's so stupid! Powerfully stupid!

"I suppose it's my turn to go on stage." Koizumi responded just as ceremoniously, doing an elegant reverence in French style. "I must say that I feel a rampant pride to be able to face such grandiloquent portent of unusual and divine power."

I even struggled to understand that... and Koizumi seemed complacent... I noticed how he smiled at the growing confusion of Koizumi-Ni, who surely was stuck on the third word of such a pretentious sentence.

"Just come here and fight." The impostor concluded upset.

"I can feel my powers," he whispered to me. "It looks that in the closed spaces that Koizumi-Ni creates any esper that possesses powers related to Suzumiya can perform..." he then turned to the alien. "Nagato, please, protect the building and them. Wish me luck!"

Nagato assented and Koizumi ran until the edge of the building to later jump into the empty space. I could hear a small explosion half way through the fall and seconds later, a red and bright sphere with an equivalent diameter to Koizumi's height went out flying in direction of his counterpart. Koizumi-Ni did the proper turning again the green-lit sphere that surrounded him on... it's more than five times the size of Koizumi...

Koizumi-Ni went shooting towards the zenith, making the windows of the last floor of the building where I was burst in the process. At a considerable height, I could see how our esper indiscriminately shot small energy spheres that impacted against Koizumi-Ni with the same effect soap bubbles would have.

"Is that it?" The fool confidently asked... forgive me, but I think I would refer to him like that from now on. "Your God must hate you! This is what you should be able to do!"

Koizumi-Ni raised his right arm to later dropped it as if it was the blade of an ax. The effect was simply horrifying. Everything that was in a straight line in front of him, and I mean everything, buildings, cars, trees, even a part of the hill, were pulverized in the act, leaving a thick dust curtain. This includes the fact that I just noticed that his closed space practically occupies the whole city...

Koizumi couldn't continue attacking, he was now frenetically flying avoiding the destructive and constant attacks from the fool, in more than one occasion we were in the line of sight of one of those intents, Nagato, without moving, protected us with invisible barriers... no impact passed through, but I could see how Nagato's cheeks eventually tensed... it gives me the impression that it was being hard for her to retain all that energy. That wasn't the only problem, at each hit, the whole building shook and the windows burst... I think that in the few minutes that the fight has been going on, the building has sunk about twenty centimeters into the ground... How is it possible that someone as dumb as him has such power? I simply observed the scene, Asahina fearfully held onto my arm and Nagato was in front of us without moving... always protecting us.

It seems the invisible barriers of Nagato were selective. In the last attack Koizumi was reached, he was able to protect himself on time using his own powers, thus not suffering an important damage, but he was dragged along a surge of that overflowing energy in direction towards us. Koizumi cleanly crossed the barrier by touching it, the energy that was dragging him crashed and it dispersed. Even without the push, Koizumi violently landed some meters away from us breaking several floor tiles due to the force and ending on his left knee.

"Are you okay...?" I asked without getting close.

"Yeah, don't worry..." He said in a lower voice than usual and looking at the ground. "I was only warming up."

I turned towards the fool, that was floating stupidly laughing while looking at his counterpart dejected and tired.

"Emergency mode." Nagato said. "Starting protocol of assistance to..."

"No!" Koizumi said after hearing what seemed to me an extraterrestrial offer to help. "I will do it... please, just protect the building, Nagato..."

(2)

Koizumi finally lifted his face and took the uniform's coat off to throw it to me after. This is the first time that I see Koizumi like this... so serious, so decided... damn it... he's furious... I can feel his rage all the way here... I can understand what he's feeling... Didn't ever happen to you when you were a kid that some brat always had a better toy than yours? Or being a little older, the girl you liked went out with an absolute idiot that had more money than you? In a different level, perhaps, but I think that is what's in the mind of our normally diplomatic esper.

"Teach him some humility..." I said to Koizumi, feeling great empathy for him... I truly wish he wins. "Make him go to hell!"

Koizumi heard these last words and shot off towards the sky turning into a red blast, almost dragging us with the inertia he left behind. The minuscule red sphere fully crashed against the enormous green mole with such speed and force that Koizumi-Ni couldn't avoid or block it and was dragged close to a kilometer in the air. A new dose of gigantic attacks emanated from the fool, but Koizumi evaded them, more than with skill, with elegance... he seemed to be dancing while flying and after some minutes, the attacks of Koizumi-Ni started to become erratic and desperate, Koizumi did all this with a serious face, denoting a proper concentration of a medic in microsurgery... and it wasn't the power what was defining the combat, the fool is exponentially stronger... it's the administration of the resources... I start to respect this guy, seriously... a little after, the roles had reversed, Koizumi started to attack, he constantly backed his counterpart down, that was now showing a foolish laugh full of frustration.

However, the constant attacks of Koizumi didn't accomplish even getting through the green sphere, in no way they touched the body of Koizumi-Ni to defeat him... I could notice on the face of Koizumi, still deeply concentrated, that he was beginning to get exhausted...

Koizumi-Ni threw an enormous sphere of white light against our brigade partner, Koizumi flew to avoid it, but the sphere turned around in the air to undertake him... it was something like a homing missile... Koizumi took him to a close by building, entering through a window and making the enormous sphere impact there, causing the construction to collapse... he must've thought the same thing as me at that moment... he shot off flying once again in direction of Koizumi-Ni, who was about to repeat the same technique... a new white sphere went out on the direction of our vice commander and he guided it until being some hundreds of meters in a straight line from Koizumi-Ni.

Koizumi then stopped discharging the red light of his sphere and he let himself plummet, like in a diving contest, only propelled by gravity. The fool was left amazed at what his eyes were watching... his own energy irredeemably fell on him, behind a Koizumi that wasn't even using his powers at that moment. Koizumi passed falling next to his counterpart and a little before impacting against the building below, he turned into a red dynamo again and he flew towards us like an arrow and stayed floating some twenty-some meters above our heads.

The mass of light fell disintegrating the construction below it and making good part of the city shake... silence and a lot of dust... seconds later, Koizumi-Ni appeared floating, without his green aura... his body smoked, he was holding his right arm and from his forehead, a fine line of blood descended... he looked at us with resentment... I lie, he looked at Koizumi with resentment...

He shot off in the same direction from which he arrived. I believed it wasn't appropriate and that's why I didn't do it, but I felt like giving a big ovation to the esper... he deserved it... Nagato hadn't had the chance to face her counterpart, and Asahina and I were seamlessly defeated by Asahina-Ni... he was the first member of our brigade to take a victory. I have just changed a little my opinion about this guy... I think I will be more careful in the way in which I respond in the future...

My joy ended moments later. The closed space was lifted, making the buildings and other things in the surroundings go back to normal, reconstructing buildings and solving the hiving of the hill that got affected, the windows had again their crystals and the light of an invisible sun hit us again through the clouds. Until here one could say that everything is fine... but there was a small detail we overlooked... Koizumi floated at an enough distance to break both legs or his spine if he fell on his feet, or die if he fell on his head... if there isn't a closed space, there isn't any powers either... Horrified, the three of us turned towards the esper without any powers while he began to fall, and then the unthinkable happened... he vanished in the air... long and confused seconds passed without being able to explain what was happening. Some moments later, the doubts were cleared.

Koizumi reappeared and he wasn't alone. I young girl with pigtails held onto him by his arm and she looked exhausted.

"Thank you so much! That was close!" The esper said thankful to the girl.

"It was nothing..." She responded recovering her breath. I had already seen this girl before, and if we would've met in other circumstances, I'd think she is a very agreeable person. Kyouko Tachibana. She looked at me and dedicated a smile at me and at my very obvious confusion. "The powers of the espers work in different ways... if it wasn't like that, we would be on our way to the hospital." She cleared it off. She turned then towards Koizumi. "We have orders to assist you..." She interrupted herself looking towards the access to the roof of the building, suddenly getting serious. "I will explain at another time, I think there is something you need to solve first..."

Terror was what I saw in Koizumi's eyes... a greater one from the day when we found out of the arrival of the sliders... I looked at Asahina and she had a similar gesture, even Nagato had her eyes slightly more open and she also seemed scare... Everybody looked behind me, since my back was towards the entrance of the roof... don't tell me...

"Does someone want to explain..." No, that voice no... amongst all the people in the world... "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE?"

The inevitable finally happened... how long had she been there...? I turned to encounter the contorted and full of rage face of Haruhi...

 _Porca Miseria_ …

 **Chapter 5.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Ah, I love action scenes, and I know is pretty hard to describe one of them, however, I did my best trying to put the intensity on words; I really hope I succeed in my efforts. So, maybe this chapter is a breaking point in all canon of stories I wrote, the realization of a big true and how the characters behave. Well, let me know what do you think about on a review. Thanks for reading us!

 **Translator Notes:** Uh-oh, it seems the cat is out of the bag. Did you guys ever wonder how would Haruhi find out the truth? I wonder what Kyon is going to do now! I have a feeling Pepsipez will deliver an amazing sequence of events. I'm sure you guys can't wait to read the next chapter. Haha. I'll try to have it ready soon. Until then!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

Didn't your mother ever catch you stealing money from her purse? Come on, be honest... or did your father ever question you the month you didn't bring your report card saying, "I haven't gotten it" only prolonging the agony...? it feels as though your intestines turn... the result is unknown to you, but you know that whatever it is, it won't be agreeable.

There the six of us were. Tachibana remained in silence and a little farther away, trying to stay out of whatever it was to happen there.

"How long have you been there...?" I asked... the tension of the moment made my voice sound more threatening than doubting.

"Long enough..." Haruhi responded with the same defiant tone. "So Koizumi flies, doesn't he? It was a nice lights' show..." She spouted to him, making the esper move his mouth without any sounds coming out. "And on top of it all, there are two of you!"

"Suzumiya…" He tried to respond. He couldn't do it.

"And you, Yuki! What were you doing? Don't tell me that it was thanks to you that the building didn't collapse!" She dangerously lowered the tone of her voice. "Because that's exactly what it looked like..."

"…" Nagato simply looked at her in silence, she didn't intend to respond.

"Mikuru... I didn't see you doing anything serious, but you didn't look surprised... I bet it isn't the first time that you are in a situation like this, correct?"

"S-s-s-Suzumiya…" She also tried, but she was caught off by Haruhi's next charge.

"You..." She then said talking to me, there was more resentment in her voice than in all the previous accusations. "You knew it all, right? You knew it all this time! You even brought here one of the little friends of that girlfriend you had!"

She yelled pointing at Kyouko Tachibana, who jumped from being pointed at by Haruhi's index finger and instinctively hid behind Koizumi... Sasaki wasn't my girlfriend, I thought we had cleared that up...

"Haruhi… let us explain…"

"Explain? No… everything is very clear now... How could have I been so blind...?"

I think that despite her mood being regularly bad, I had never seen her so mad before. Her fists were tight, as much or more than her lips which shook, her eyes were red and full of tears that threatened to fall at any moment. She took a deep breath and scanned everyone with a gaze full of disdain... she then turned around and walked downstairs. My first impulse was to run behind her, but I stopped a couple of steps after, noticing that no one was imitating me.

"Let's go! What the hell are you waiting for?" I reproached at the inactivity and dejection from the others.

"We must find another solution..." Koizumi said beginning to recover. "Perhaps if Asahina puts her to sleep again, we could argue that she had a nightmare or something of that style... we have been in strange situations before and we have been able to solve it like this."

Enough.

"Um... and we should establish a plan of action every time this happens..." Asahina doubtfully seconded. "And we must be more careful next time... it was my fault she became aware, it looks I didn't apply an enough amount of anesthesia."

It's enough, seriously...

"To establish a credible argument, in a way that Suzumiya Haruhi accepts it as truth and her thought patterns and cognitive appreciation don't get altered. You could take care of that." It came from Nagato's lips, talking to me. "It is priority, given our actual situation, that Suzumiya Haruhi stays at the margin of the events until the crisis we are facing gets solved in a reasonable manner."

It's enough!

"I will request assistance to get an Agency vehicle intercept her so we can execute this emergency plan..." Koizumi said reaching the phone in his pocket... he was going to begin dialing...

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" It came out of my mouth almost involuntarily.

The four of them turned towards me, surprised.

"Kyon, you must understand..." Koizumi started, momentarily recovering his smile.

"No, I don't understand it and I don't pretend to do it! Did you hear anything of what you guys just say? You are talking about putting Haruhi to sleep and continue lying to her! I'd fear your cold blood if it didn't make me feel nauseous." I yelled at the esper. I ignore the expression my face must have at that moment, but from the sudden seriousness of Koizumi and seeing how he stepped back, I suppose I must be very scary. "Is that the great answer you have? You're supposed to be an expert at understanding Haruhi's mind! You don't understand anything! She trusted you...! She trusted all of us! Stop acting like you knew everything about her! You don't know even half of what's in her mind! I'm convinced that those stupid broadsides you tend to have, have led us to more problems than she has...! So, stop acting like the gallant of a cheap tragedy and assume the responsibility of your actions... but not in the way you propose."

Koizumi looked down at the floor. His face didn't carry an expression.

"But...Nagato backs up my..."

"Of course! Nagato!" I lashed out deviating myself from the esper and facing the alien. "Nagato is always there to solve our lives, no? But guess what... our very powerful card to succeed, the omnipotent and immovable Nagato, always a step ahead, could've prevented all this hefty volume since the beginning... however, she didn't do it, because her job is to observe... if that's the case, why does she coincide with you that we have to lie to the girl that blindly deposited her trust on us?" I asked at less than a step away from Nagato. I slightly inclined myself in a way that my face stood at a few centimeters from hers while I stared into her empty eyes. "Because she knows that she could've prevented this situation from the beginning if she had a little character... but you don't... do you?"

Nagato's eyes took an expression then. One that I could not read.

"K-Kyon…" Asahina tried to intervene. She shouldn't have.

"Please, Asahina!" I said irritated. "We don't need you to start crying now!"

That was enough for her... she stood there looking at me with her eyes wide open and with the very same expression she would have if I had slapped her.

Kyouko Tachibana stood at a reasonable distance, trying by any possible means to look invisible.

I walked towards the building stairs leaving my brigade partners behind. I stopped for a moment, but I didn't turn to see them.

"If you want to continue with that abomination of a plan, go ahead... but absolutely do not count with me... I'm going to look for Haruhi right now and tell her the whole truth..." I slightly turned my head. "And I want to see the idiot that tries to get on my way!"

I started to descend the stairs and I could hear a deep sigh from Koizumi and the whimpers of Asahina... and I didn't care, I had something more important to solve in that moment.

* * *

The night had already fallen on us. As it was expected, the first places where I tried to look for Haruhi were the classrooms and other areas of the school. After, I started to search for her on the surrounding streets, the train station, the park and so on. Until then, I kept ignoring where she lived, she didn't respond to my calls and my desperation continued growing. The cold had intensified and a mass of polar air hit our city making my bones hurt while I pedaled on my bike. I didn't have my school things, they would get on the way, so I had left them in the clubroom. I had spent close to five hours looking for my brigade leader and given the little success I was achieving, I had begun applying the technique of yelling her name from street to street.

I'm still mad at Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina. It seems to me that what they were planning is the vilest I've seen them even insinuate. The fact that they could execute their plan has me preoccupied, and if I didn't find Haruhi, I'd see her next day with a brain wash given by those three... Damn it! I truly trusted them... How can they have ideas so Machiavellian? Yes, I admit that Haruhi can be stupidly bossy, angry, inopportune and could continue with a long list of flaws of character... but when it comes to the people close to her, she's generous and attentive, to the point of being meddlesome... she doesn't deserve to be played this way... what we did, because yes, I too participated, was cruel and unnecessary... I'm still sure that if things are adequately explained to her, it can be much more beneficial than if the truths about her and her powers are hidden from her. I suppose that's what Koizumi was referring to when he said that there's a bond of trust between us that strongly link us together. Link that I just broke... the rage badly contained that I experimented and projected against the club guys was, in reality, rage against myself. Because I knew that I had spoiled everything... because I had lost that so special connection that I had with Haruhi, and although I didn't want to admit it... I needed to have it.

A look at my phone indicated to me the time... It was almost eleven at night and my effort hadn't been crowned with success. I think I went to places in the city that I didn't even know and once I saw unknown constructions I desisted to continue and came back to my locality... she mustn't have gone too far, after all. Defeated, I decided that the best thing to do was to go back home to change clothes and grab something I could eat on the way, because yes, I will continue my search, all night if it was necessary.

Then, a reasoning hit me... How didn't I see it before? The curve on the way home, the bench... the huge jacaranda tree... I began to pedal as fast as my strength allowed me, that was my only reference, if she wasn't there, I'd have to really start to worry.

I've thought about a bunch of ways to apologize or excuse myself with her once I see her, but I really don't know what I'm going to tell her. I truly feel bad about what has happened... maybe she should've discovered her potential in the middle of a more agreeable experience, without feeling betrayed by us... realizing her power is simply huge and can be used for the good of everybody. Perhaps I should have told her about it inside one of the closed spaces and convinced her...

The little light that the streetlamps offered made it a little complicated to see what was on the curve on my way home I'm talking about. In fact, the crown of the tree makes it impossible to see the bench... even so, something inside of me tells me that I will find her there...

"Haruhi!" I called once I was some meters away from the place. There was a person sitting on the bench... a girl... it was her! My bike fell next to me, frankly I didn't care. I ran to find my club commander.

Seriously, how could I have ruined it so much? There she was... she looked truly depressed. She didn't lower herself to even turn to look at me. She must be very angry... I would be. She was only wearing the sailor uniform from school, she didn't wear a coat. Without thinking, I took my jacket off and I slowly got closer to her. I set it over her shoulders and I waited for her to at least raise her gaze from the ground.

Some seconds went by and she finally dedicated a look to me. Her eyes continued to be sad, and carried such an intensity that I had to look at the ground. She slowly stood up, the inertia caused my jacket to fall off her shoulders. She walked the step that separated her from me without taking her eyes off me.

The flying kick from Asahina-Ni was a caress full of tenderness compared to the slap that Haruhi gave me then. My left cheek burned as if boiling oil had been poured on it and all my body shook. Some instants later, I could feel the flavor of my blood in between my teeth... she does have a heavy hand... however, I didn't move... I only limited myself to turn towards her. She hit me for a second time, this time, the pain obligated me to release a lament almost inaudible. The third slap arrived almost without any force. When I turned to see Haruhi, thick tears came out of her eyes.

"Why?" She asked, whispering, with a broken voice.

"Haruhi... you must understand... it was to protect you..."

"Lier..." She said a little louder.

"I know I shouldn't have hidden it from you, but our safety depended on it."

"STOP LYING TO ME! WHY ARE YOU INSISTING ON PULLING THE WOOL OVER MY EYES?"

"I'm not lying to you... if you could only understand what you mean to the world..."

"I TRUSTED YOU, ASSHOLE! FROM AMONG ALL PEOPLE, I CHOSE YOU, BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE HONEST!"

"I know and I'm sorry!" I tried to contain her with the biggest delicateness possible when I saw that again she would lash out against me. "That's why... I will tell you the truth... and I will make a deal with you. Just listen to me, if after that you don't want to forgive me, I will understand..."

Her face showed that her cholera didn't decrease, but she finally stopped trying to hit me... resigned she sat again on the bench and crossed her arms. I got closer and I set my jacket again over her shoulders and after I sat on the floor, in front of her.

"Do you remember that more than a year ago I told you that the brigade guys were... special?"

"Yes." She responded in short.

"It was true... and believe me, the problem isn't settled in them in reality... it's about you. It's because of you that they are reunited... it is because of you that strange events happen in our surroundings. Amongst us there's an alien, an esper and a time traveler... But they're only a small part of the whole mystery. You told me when we met that amongst all people in the world, you wanted to be the most special, that you wanted the whole world to turn around you... well, you must know that it is that way... I will not go into details, because frankly I don't understand a lot about you... the only thing I know for a fact is that I shouldn't have hidden it from you, at least, not for so long... my deal is that from now on, I will not hide anything else... I will reclaim the trust you had in me and I will help you find the answer to whatever comes after."

"And what happens if I don't want you to be with me?" She asked incisive, but more calmed.

"What I have learned from my brigade chief... I will do it despite of you. You like it or not, I will be by your side, without caring if you throw me out, insult me or hit me... because in a way I know that I have deserved it... I betrayed your trust once, and I feel terrible because it, I don't know if you will forgive me some day, but I will leave my life trying if it's necessary." I held her hands. "You mean too much to me... to the brigade, to leave you drifting off in this."

"That's true." A third voice said. It was Koizumi. "I believe Kyon is summarizing very well what we all think."

"Because we really care about you, Suzumiya... regardless of what you are or who you are." Asahina seconded.

I didn't even notice when they arrived... Nagato carried a low gaze. However, her intervention left me with an open mouth:

"It's difficult for a being like me to comprehend the complexity that develops in human's interpersonal relationships... not only they involved a dialectic interaction, but they also experiment... feel what they say at an organic level, which generates diverse type of moods in them. It's a revelation to this interface to know that I can experiment those emotions, but my lack of comprehension of them limit me to manifest them. When it comes to the absence of information about your condition and in concrete to the classification of the information that has been share with you, I experiment a high level of the noise that you call guilt. I have been sent here with a mission and I must follow it by any means... In the last six hundred forty-five days, I've been exposed to a great amount of confusing data that has made me prone to mistakes of many types. But one of the affluent of information prevenient from this interaction I'm talking about, it's the closeness to the association known as the SOS Brigade, that from a short time ago stopped being considered a mistake to me." She slowly walked towards Haruhi and extended her right arm. "Nowadays, I have the personal wish to give my greatest priority to the designs that this associations conceive as convenient and set them before the ones originally ordered by the Entity responsible of the Data Integration from which I come." Haruhi looked at Nagato's hand... she was extending the red bracelet with the legend 'Brigade Leader.' "...since I consider myself an active member of the SOS Brigade, therefore, you are my leader and because of that, my loyalty is with you."

Incredible... when I realized it, the horrible polar gale that was tormenting us was gone, although the cold kept being intense. Moments later, a light and agreeable snow fall began. Haruhi seemed particularly moved by the words that came out of those lips always so closed. She stood up and took the bracelet. After reflexing some seconds, she adequately put my jacket on and attached the bracelet to the left sleeve. With a smugly attitude she put her hands on her waist and took a deep breath to say:

"Fine... everybody will be penalized for hiding information from your commander. It will take me some time to design an appropriate punishment, but it won't be today... today we will go back to the club room and you will tell me everything I need to know, if someone has an objection, complaint or suggestion around this plan, I will receive your ideas in writing after the assembly." I could see that smile with a luminosity comparable to the one of various clusters of starts adorning her face and I felt more relaxed. This girl is so simple that she's further away than any dumb resentment... I also know that she profoundly appreciates us all and in a so uninterested way that her anger couldn't last long, but I would've liked... what did Koizumi say...? Ah, yes, darken her heart. She walked in front of everybody with the right hand raised high. "So everybody to school! There's work to do!"

* * *

Back at school, we set ourselves for the assembly... I think this is the first serious meeting since the brigade was founded more than two years ago. Koizumi set himself on the side of the coat track on the center table, he sat down like the host of a talk show. Asahina was in front of him next to Nagato. Haruhi, of course, occupied her commander chair and I took one of the folding chairs and I sat down some steps behind her with the chair set backwards, in a way that my arms could rest on the backrest.

"And well...? Haruhi began. "...who wants to start?"

"I suppose that the vice commander should start setting the example." Koizumi theatrically responded.

Koizumi spoke about his condition as an esper and of the Agency with a looseness similar as if he had been practicing the speech for years.

"...Like that, almost five years ago, all the members of the Agency got these strange powers, but we could only manifest around determined factors..." With this and all the story that I knew since almost two years ago.

"You mean with that in my moments of depression or melancholy these closed spaces and the celestials are created... As if the _Id_ created them?" Haruhi asked at some point during the conversation.

"That's right. Your common sense or _Ego_ kept you at the margin of knowing it, and we acted like your _Superego_ , fixing the flaws that the celestials caused and avoiding that those propagated into reality..." Perhaps the most amazing part of this talk was how suddenly they arrived at the Freudian theoretical postulate of the psychic apparatus, and of course, the level of understanding that Haruhi had about it. I stopped following when they evolved into Lacanian matters.

"The year from which I come from will be for now classified information, but it's far, into the future..." Asahina narrated a little after. "Currently, we continue to study the cause of this space-temporal cataclysm that stops people from my era to continue with their investigations on previous stages to the actual period... actual to you all, of course..."

"Then..." Haruhi eventually interrupted, more than to ask, to confirm her own theories. "...what you're saying is that travel in time is constantly facing the _paradox of the Heraclito river_?"

"Basically yes, although in our era it continues to be a subject of discussion, because we equally must follow the parameters of the determinism and apply it as a fundamental rule to the execution of the intervention in events from the past..."

"And why does it look like you base your time travel more in philosophical terms than in scientific terms?" Haruhi lashed out with her usual acuity.

 _"_ _Classified information…"_

It was expected, no? But... how is Haruhi dominating with such looseness these subjects...? Do they really teach that in high school...? I must be spending more time sleeping than I thought...

"The Entity responsible of the Data Integration is an entity that has no tools to communicate with the organic life forms in a direct way, in fact, it has relatively a short period of time that it developed the capacity to create an understandable language for both forms of evolution and from that point, to begin to create interfaces like me." The group's alien trumpeted a little after.

"By a short period of time I imagine you mean the birth of the human reason..." Haruhi inquired.

"You imagine well. Only, and only until humanity reached an enough level of intelligence that allowed the storage and creation of data, the EID was capable of developing a linguistic system that allowed us to directly interact with the organisms auto nominated _Homo Sapiens_. It was discovered then that this species, located in particular on this planet, had cyclic explosions of data of different magnitudes and with different effects on reality approximately every two millenniums."

"Two millenniums ago something similar happened then?"

"That's classified."

"Tell me, Yuki... the entity where you come from, does it occupy a particular planet? Is it omniscient? Is it the only one in the universe with those characteristics? If I want to try, can I see it?"

"No, yes, no, it's unknown the true reach of your capabilities, although there exists a high probability."

The talk turned around that and other subjects, some getting more complicated (at least to me), and when I looked at my phone I noticed that it was almost two in the morning.

"And you..." Haruhi said, turning in her chair until being in front of me. "...how do you fit into all of this?"

"I wish I knew." I responded. "I registered to North High School willing to give up my fantasies about extraordinary things and you showed up with that strange introduction... a good day I made the dumb decision to begin to talk to you and then I was sitting here, being questioned about how I fit into all this craziness about aliens, espers, time travelers and sliders..."

Haruhi scrutinized me with those amber eyes for some seconds while she played with her hair. She then faced the rest of the concurrence again.

"Let's take a recess of fifteen minutes and then let's take the conversation from here... I suppose that there's something more serious on the table, I don't believe that you've revealed yourselves just because you appreciate me..." She ordered making it clear, even after only being made aware today, that she was a step ahead of us... it would be good for everyone to take a break, especially for Haruhi... the next thing we must inform to her won't be so pleasurable.

* * *

I walked almost by inertia outside of the old building and I searched for asylum under the tree where Haruhi decided we should make a band for the last cultural festival... it's a relief that the idea hadn't particularized. I only come with my uniform on, my crazy brigade leader still has my jacket... although it's okay, the truth is that the cold helps me think with more clarity. Now that I think about it, I really think that Haruhi is taking very well what's happening... Nagato and Asahina had told me before that Haruhi was able to perceive the strange things, but couldn't become aware on her own... it seems amazing to me the way in which she's assimilating everything... I think that in the time that we've all known each other, we've grown and evolved a lot.

"Aren't you cold?" Haruhi asked some steps away from me.

"No much, really." Lie... Even my spine hurts due to the freaking cold.

"Incredible things have happened since we started high school, haven't they?"

"You can't even imagine... I guarantee you that I will tell you all about them as soon as we have some time."

"Mikuru is getting some tea ready."

Haruhi stayed in silence some moments after saying that.

"I still don't understand very well how I fit into this whole situation." I commented. "However... there's something I think it's appropriate for you to know from me." I stood up and I looked directly into her eyes. I had made the deal of not hiding anything from her. I'd be faithful to that deal. "I... I am..."

"John Smith." She completed, with a relaxed expression on her face... smiling.

"How do you...?"

"I didn't know it..." She said lowering her gaze, suddenly enraptured. "From that first time I talked to you... your face... the timbre of your voice and that ridiculous attitude of yours... I didn't know that you were the John Smith I met almost five years ago, in Tanabata... only... only I wished that it was so... I wished it was you..."

Do the powers of this girl know any limits...?

"Haruhi…"

"Let's go, the tea must be ready!" She said recovering her enthusiasm.

She took my hand and began to drag me to the club room again.

* * *

Tears were almost ripped from my eyes in gratitude to the glorious tea of Asahina. In a few moments I had recovered all my aplomb and my body had recovered from the infernal cold I suffered some minutes before. After a brief instant of relaxation, the moment of truth arrived... to tell Haruhi about the SOS-Ni Brigade and what their arrival to our plane meant.

Koizumi and Nagato were on charge of the spoken explanation, Asahina and I were on charge of the experiential one. As we revealed the information and narrated what had happened in the last weeks, the face of Haruhi was becoming more serious. It looks it was easier for her than for me to understand the true dimension of the problem we were facing.

"Where are they now?" Haruhi asked once the summary ended.

"We ignore it." Koizumi responded. "Apparently, they have similar problems to locate us, they know only the necessary... even so, we are at a disadvantage."

"They're obviously dangerous to us... Are the dangerous to our families, loved ones or school classmates?" She asked, once again just to confirm her theory.

"The risk is undetermined, but the simulations throw critical levels of probability." Nagato said.

Haruhi stood up from her chair and looked through the window, reflexive... it took her a considerable amount of time on whatever she was thinking. At some point, I got to imagine that smoke would come out of her head.

"Well, I've made a plan... I hope to count with everybody's cooperation... it will be difficult to execute... in many aspects... but if we work together, we will make it work... I know we will..." She faced us all with that smile of a million watts. "Get close together, the plan is as follows..."

We all got closer to her and she began to give us the details...

"Just what I would've expected from Suzumiya." Koizumi said once all the information had been shared with us.

"We will do it...!" Asahina affirmed, full of determination.

"The probability of success if superior than if a plan wasn't established." Nagato added.

"That's craziness..." Yes, that was me... "But it could work..."

"It's decided then!" Our commander exclaimed, radiating. "A malign association of usurpers has come from another dimension to attempt against the SOS Brigade! We will give them a fight and we will defeat them! This is the first! This is the first grand adventure of the SOS Brigade!" It surprises me the kind of heart this girl has... we are standing at the edge of the precipice, about to lose it all, and to her, it's an adventure... I feel very envious of her so unique way of looking at life, and at the same I'm thankful it's that way. "Koizumi, when you talked about your Agency's resources, how much reach were we talking about?"

"I couldn't exactly say... What's in your mind?" Haruhi made a pair of petitions that seemed a little strange to me. "That's no problem, I'll have both things before dawn."

"Yuki... how far does your data manipulation reach? Particularly when it comes to matters of the memory." She then spouted at the alien.

"It's competent."

"Perfect! Mikuru! Are you armed in some way?" She then asked passing the baton to the time traveler.

"N-no…"

"Can you obtain arms and authorization to use them?"

"I co... could try to obtain permissions..."

"You will do it tomorrow then... for today the session is over, although I don't want you to go home... so we will all have to sleep here and early tomorrow we will execute the plan."

* * *

Some minutes later, we set everything according to Haruhi's designs, Asahina shared the sleeping bag with Nagato, Koizumi set his head on the big long table at the center of the room and I kept the spot I had used the whole reunion, close to the window. Haruhi also stayed in the brigade leader's office hair. The lights were turned off and little by little, the initial silence became a little orchestra of weak snores and synchronized breathings. I couldn't sleep...

"Kyon... are you awake?" Haruhi asked a little after, in a whisper barely audible.

"A little..." I responded with the same tone in my voice.

Barely making any noise, she turned her chair and started to push it with her feet, getting close to me.

"Did you know what Koizumi said about the creation of close spaces?" She asked me as close to me as she could and being careful to say it as low as possible.

"Yes…"

"You know... some time ago... strange dreams... about you..." By this point, my heart was beating with a lot of strength. "...And I was wondering... those dreams...?" I curiously noticed that the snores and the synchronized breathings had also stopped... Nosey guys! This is a talk between Haruhi and I!

"They weren't dreams..." I said feeling as if my face burned in shame.

"Oh...!" Haruhi had put both hands over her mouth and had opened her eyes as much as she could... A very uncomfortable silence was formed then... Neither one of us dared looked at the other. "Hm... eh... well... you are good..." She said making me feel even more embarrassed if that was possible.

"Eh... thank you... you too..." I responded barely being able to modulate the tone of my voice.

And after some instants, the uncomfortable silence became hilarious... and then we both laughed like silly people at the discovery. And when our gazes caught each other's again, I felt the impulse to kiss her... she was very close to me and I didn't feel heavy hearted anymore from lying to her. It seems she thought the same thing, so we simply did it. It's the first time in my life that I have an authentic kissing session... because the closed spaces don't count... this is different, it's real... and it's enormously comforting. We were on this channel for some minutes, but the fatigue was greater, it had been a very long day.

"Good night." Haruhi said, getting away towards the desk.

"Good night." I responded supporting my head over my arms, getting ready to sleep.

And I should take advantage of the little hours of sleep that will be left today... I suspect that they will be my last calmed nights in some time.

 **Chapter 6.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** It's been crazy and busy days for me, but since is not me who really are working on this project, I think I owe at least a little of time to publish due all the work that **luf5** is doing. One of my targets writing this whole story was to humanize the characters, I know they were already very human, but I still could feel them away from me… well, now I'm just babbling, so ignore it. Until next update!

 **Translator Notes:** Was this chapter very long or was it just my imagination? Haha. This is one of my favorite chapters, so many things happen here. Haruhi finally finds out the truth, including John's Smith true identity, and I don't know about you all but I think **Pepsipez** did an outstanding job handling all the characters' interactions. Which part was your favorite? I honestly can't decide between Yuki's words to Haruhi or Kyon and Haruhi's exchanges. Those are always amazing. I'm sure you are all wondering what Haruhi's plan consists of and you'll soon find out. Just let me tell you, the next chapters will have a lot of good old action. Hope you're ready!


	8. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter sever. We are arriving to the climax!**

* * *

 **Chapter 7.**

Despite the so cold night that had preceded, we have a well-tempered weather this Saturday morning. My forehead is marked due to the metal of the back of the chair where I slept and I'm being violently woken up with hits from a small yellow megaphone. I swear I will search that megaphone in another time and I will make it disappear from the face of the earth.

"Get up! Everybody else is already working and you haven't moved from that chair!" I finally opened my eyes to see the eternally irritated expression of Haruhi, about to give me another hit to wake me up.

"I'm awake..."

"Good... Koizumi already brought one of the things I asked for, so get dressed quickly... we have to eat breakfast, go over the plan and execute the first part."

After barely finishing that phrase, a small plastic bag was thrown at me, and I had to leave running the club room along with Koizumi, Haruhi, as always, had started to take her uniform off to put the clothes that the Agency had sent the esper.

"I hope I guessed your taste right." Koizumi said smiling, once I opened the bag and started to take the new clothes that were in it out.

"Guessed? It's even the brand of clothes I tend to buy..." I didn't say it as a compliment... in fact, it's this kind of thing that makes me fear Koizumi's Agency... now I don't only feel I'm being watched, I feel naked... it's shivering... ignoring that fact, I changed my clothes. At the bottom of the bag, there was a little package that contained personal hygiene items... a small soap bar, toothpaste, a disposable toothbrush, deodorant and some hairspray... well... these guys are really on everything... "What hotel did they steal this from?"

"I can assure you that everything has been legally acquired, if that's your concern." The boy with paranormal powers responded while we walked to the locker rooms to get cleaned. "Doesn't it seem amazing to you that Suzumiya had taken so well everything that happened between yesterday and today?"

"I told you she'd take it well... just because she acts like a spoiled and mad girl, it doesn't mean that she is in one in reality."

"I think that's true... that is perhaps the reason why she chose you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I tell you again: there's a link of trust so deep between you two... that it allowed her to take the truth about her powers the best way possible... and all thanks to you. I'd feel bad if I didn't share it with you, so I will tell you... I could hear last night the little conversation that you had with Suzumiya." Fucking nosey ass! I knew it! "I must say I feel happy to see that Suzumiya matured so much in this time... if you hadn't shown up in her life and the Brigade SOS-Ni had arrived, I think that we would be facing the Armageddon right now."

"Just because you compliment me this way doesn't mean I will like you any better..."

"Understood."

* * *

We went back to the club room a little fresher and cleaner. Inside, the girls were already wearing outside clothes and we had a guest... a maid... and no, it wasn't Asahina.

"Come in and serve yourselves! Breakfast just arrived!" Sonou Mori said with that bright smile that made it impossible to calculate her age.

We did as she indicated and some minutes later we ate an abundant and revitalizing breakfast. Subject to the fact that my appetite was big by now, I must clarify that it wasn't a worthy competition to Haruhi's and Nagato's, whom simply cleaned each plate that crossed their way. However, there was something that worried me... Asahina barely ate anything.

"Are you feeling sick?" I asked seeing her so passive.

"Eh? No! I'm okay!" She said as if coming back from daydreaming and moving her eyes away from mine... She then threw a preventive look at Haruhi, whom ate completely unworried.

I don't think... I mean... perhaps at some point I've made some innocent insinuation, but it's not like for... Asahina to be jealous of Haruhi, right...? What should I tell her? If she made the same mistake as Koizumi and heard our conversation after turning the lights off, she also heard our little wordless dialogue afterwards... some years ago I went through a situation in which I was rejected by the girl I liked, and making everything worse, I found her with another boy in a very bold and unconscionable mouth-to-mouth interaction... I suppose you've experienced that before and it's horrible... the problem here is... How to comfort her if this was the case?

The end of breakfast surprised me still with those thoughts in my mind.

"Kyon! Come with me!" Haruhi ordered, making me follow her out of the clubroom up to the stairs. She stayed in silence for some minutes and then asked, "Do you think the plan I came up with will work?"

"Yes... I think it couldn't be any other way. I'm also interested in making sure my family is safe."

"Let's do it then."

At her indication, I took my phone and I dialed my house's number.

"Yes...? It's me... put mom on the phone, please... it's none of your business, put her on the phone!" While I gave directions to my little sister, Haruhi looked even more undecided at her own phone. The communication at home got reestablished. "Hello? Mom...? Yes... at school... eh, yes... I will explain later... I need you to do something for me... Could you please go with dad and little sister to the café that's outside the station? Yes, it's urgent... arrive at around one in the afternoon, there will be a table reserved, just say my name... don't worry, it's nothing grave... yes... yes... ah, by the way! About the question you asked me on Tuesday... everything will be cleared today, I promise. See you later."

I felt weird... carefully thinking about it, that call represented having taken one of the most important decisions of my life and I didn't know how to face the fact. Haruhi imitated me a moment later...

"Dad? Hi...!"

* * *

The five members of the brigade comfortably traveled in a foreign brand pick-up truck on the way to the station. There were only some minutes left before one in the afternoon and a thick knot started forming little by little on the pit of my stomach.

"You're still on time to retract yourself... we all are." Haruhi said, turning around from the copilot seat.

"No... I told you that I'd do this with you and I will." I responded.

I suppose that at this stage you must be a little intrigued about the rules that the adventurous plans of our brigade leader must follow, right? Be a little patient, all doubts will be cleared next.

The vehicle, driven by Arakawa, left us at the station and from there we would start executing the first stage of the plan.

"Koizumi... is the other request I made ready?" Haruhi asked, apparently making time before the inevitable.

"Yes. They must be finishing conditioning it right now."

"Mikuru, how are the petitions I asked you to make?"

"Eh... they're being processed, I expect a response in a pair of hours at the most."

"Yuki... do you understand what you must do?"

"Understood."

"Are you ready, Kyon?"

"Like never before."

Haruhi and I started walking towards the café, the same one that so many club gatherings had hosted until today, and where I usually ended paying for everyone's food. Now that I look at those times, I feel some nostalgia... I have the impression that those days of absurd adventures have stayed in the past and I can't help but to feel sad about it. We crossed the door knowing what table we had to look for. At the table five people were already waiting for us. My parents and sister on one side. The Suzumiyas on the other.

It would be very difficult to describe the tension of the moment. Haruhi took the seat that was unoccupied at the head of the table and I took a chair and I brought it over, staying next to my brigade leader.

"Hello... did you order something already?" Haruhi asked taking a menu an expecting with that to break the tension... she was very nervous; her hands were shaking... almost as much as my legs.

My father started then, he did have the ways to break the ice.

"Hello..." He finally said, extending his hand in a western greeting to Haruhi's father... a man with a sagacious gaze... it seems those strange long eyebrows she got from him.

After the guests introduced themselves, they turned towards us expecting to get an explanation for the rare invitation to eat.

"You are wondering why we have gotten together here this afternoon..." Haruhi started seeing there was no way to make them waste any more time. "So Kyon will explain it to you..." Yes, Kyon will... What? Traitor!

"Kyon? This young man is Kyon? I finally meet you!" Haruhi's mother happily said. A very beautiful woman by the way, she passed the genes into her daughter without a doubt. "Haruhi won't stop talking about you..."

"Mom, please..." Haruhi said embarrassed. Her father didn't seem to find it very funny... "Let Kyon explain..."

"Yes... let him explain..." Haruhi's father supported with an acuteness that makes one's blood run cold...

"Eh... OK, I don't know how to start... I believe that there isn't a simple way to say this, so I will do it quickly and to the point..." I inhaled as much air as I could... it's now or never... "H-Haruhi and I..." If it could be possible, take this glass away from me... "...have decided..." ...that my will won't be done, but yours... "...that we will live together..."

Ten eyes perforated us both for a long and deep silence, product of the shock...

"That you what...?" My mother asked...

"There's no way!" That was Mr. Suzumiya.

"Together? As a mom and dad?" My sister asked, getting an idea of the implications that my affirmation carried.

"But you aren't even legal adults yet..." My father intervened.

"And why? Are you perhaps pregn...?" Haruhi's mother tried to ask.

"NO! Why would that be the reason?" Haruhi responded heated, feeling that the situation was getting out of hand.

"And just like that, out of the sudden you thought about asking for permission to do this craziness...?" Mr. Suzumiya attacked once more.

"Eh... in reality we aren't asking for permission... we are letting you know..." I quickly responded, scratching the back of my neck. Haruhi's father's expression made me fear that at any moment he'd stand up and hit me.

"But Kyon... do you have any idea of the kind of responsibility is needed to oversee a home?" My father questioned. If you only knew the size of the responsibility that rests over me just now...

"What home? I'm sure that no...!" Haruhi's father said... it must be hard for a parent when a child leaves home just like that... especially if that child is a young girl, and even more so if that young girl is the only child...

"We have a house, dad... the truth is that we've planned this with a lot of anticipation..." The girl with the yellow headband lied.

"And how are you going to support...? Mrs. Suzumiya asked.

"Kyon has a good job."

"You? Working?" My mother asked.

"Eh... yes..." I said continuing with the lie. "That's why I've been arriving home late the last days..."

"And what's going to happen with school?" My father inquired.

"Both of us could continue, Kyon's salary is enough for that and more."

"Only if you work as a yakuza." Haruhi's father inquisitively suggested, taking a dangerous look at the almost healed scars on my face.

"If it's not enough, I can also work." Haruhi came to my defense.

The bombing of questions continued for some minutes, so I took the floor to settle the issue at once... either way, it was decided and there wasn't a way to retract ourselves.

"The truth is that the decision is already taken, and we need your support... not economically... we want to be at peace with you. Even if you don't believe it, this is a very difficult decision for us..."

"You say that as if you didn't want to do it." Mrs. Suzumiya inquired.

"Don't misunderstand me... there's nothing else I want to do more than this." I said that without thinking... something inside my head told me I wasn't lying. "But for the both of us is very important that you are okay with our decision... dad, mom..." I directed myself to my parents. "I think that up until today I have never been a bad boy... OK, perhaps I'm a little lazy, but that's something I can guarantee you I will change... and I think that it's not necessary to talk about the qualities that Haruhi possesses..." I said now directing myself to the Suzumiya family.

I knew that my parents would understand... that's why I didn't object too much when Haruhi proposed this plan at the beginning. I knew that by having a good argument, they would willingly accede.

There were reflections and exchanges of ideas in a low tone of voice between both families...

"Why don't you give us some minutes...? Go and ask for a drink for everyone... and take your sister." My father said, making us leave the adult discuss.

"That went well, no?" My commander asked as soon as we left the table and we sat at the reception entrance of the small restaurant while my little sister looked over the children's magazines of the store.

"Well...? I thought I'd wet my pants at any moment! Your father is as scary as you!"

"It's a good man, but hates surprises... it reminds me a little of you."

"That comment was strange... don't ever make it again."

"Issues with Oedipus? Grow up!"

The next minutes were about trivial talks. When we considered it had been enough, all three of us went back to the table. Our parents talked more animated already and it looked like they had arrived at a verdict.

"So, this is what you guys had been up to?" My mother asked then. I simple assented. I felt some guilt from lying to them.

"I don't understand very well what you pretend with all this," Mr. Suzumiya said talking to his daughter, "but up until an hour ago you were a good daughter, with good grades and a horrible mood..." He then turned towards me. "If you think you can handle that, go ahead, I wish you luck... we've arrived at the conclusion that you guys deserve a chance. You will have a test period of three months... if you think it works, you will have our unconditional support going ahead. If not, you will have to abide by the will of your families until you become legal adults... you take it or leave it?"

Of course, we took it. The funny part of this scene was that I surprised myself when I took Haruhi's hand with relief when they reached that conclusion. The atmosphere became relax and in fact, we had a very agreeable meal with our families. Up until this point that was the good part of the plan. It was time to do the most difficult part.

* * *

I suppose that at some point in your life you've had to quit something with the only objective to make something else okay... like when you find a hurt little animal and you must set it free when it recovers, if not, it would die from sadness away from its home. That day I felt that, times one hundred.

Haruhi turned to look at me during the break in which dessert was ordered... neither she nor I ordered one. The gesture she gave me indicated it was time.

"Excuse us for a moment." She indicated, standing up, I seconded her.

"You know something..." I turned to my parents before leaving. "I love you. You are the best parents in the world." I caressed my sister's head. "Take well care of them when I'm not there."

Haruhi had quickly exited the restaurant, avoiding the scene. I followed her a little after and I found her outside the restaurant, next to Nagato. Her gaze was low and her arms crossed, she seemed dejected. Nagato broke the silence with some words that until today keep making me feel very sad,

"Selective erasing of storage of information for organic life forms. Once the process begins, it can't be stopped. You will have a time limit of one hundred sixty-eight hours to revert it. After that time, the change can't be fixed, becoming permanent. Estimated process time: twenty-eight seconds. Permission?"

Haruhi doubted a little after hearing Nagato's words, whom directly looked into her eyes, waiting for a response.

"Go ahead, Yuki…"

Nagato turned towards me to confirm the order. I simply assented. It wasn't the first time that I saw a similar process executed by our talented alien. She raised a hand and for close to half a minute, the surrounding seemed to turn and mix with nothing really moving places... I couldn't avoid the temptation and I turned towards the establishment that we had just left... I could see my sister through the ample window and she also looked at me for an instant.

When everything ended, the environment had regularized itself. My little sister still had her eyes on me, but took them off immediately, having completely lost her interest... on this perfect stranger to her. The change had been made. Haruhi and I had the need to be on good terms with our families, only to feel good emotionally, but the plan was this: make every memory or link we had with them disappear as to not make them target of our enemies. Now, my parents and her parents were old friends, the marriage without children of the Suzumiyas, and my family, with an only child.

We weren't north high school students anymore either... we put our classmates at risk unnecessarily. Haruhi proposed in her crazy plan to lose our lives, to face the problem and then, to try to recover it. As crazy as it sounds, I think she couldn't have a better idea, and if she asked for my consent to do it again, I'd repeat my decision without a doubt.

"It's our turn then." Koizumi said uniting with us. "We found a perfect place, Suzumiya."

Haruhi assented, I could see her irritated eyes trying to contain a cry... We followed Koizumi to the pick-up truck, where Asahina waited for us. We got in it again leaving our parents and basically all our past in that small restaurant where we used to spend our weekends, when the SOS Brigade was just a school club.

* * *

Haruhi recovered (although not completely) during the trip in the truck and we finally arrived at the place that Koizumi spoke about. It was a house... a big one from my point of view, not as big as Tsuruya's, but with several rooms as to not get bored in a season. The best part was that from it we could appreciate without issues the agora where some time ago we filmed part of "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00" through a little cliff. Haruhi got off the truck and happily looked at the view.

"Did you see Kyon? What do you think?"

"It's perfect." I responded.

"Stop looking at my ass?"

"What...? I wasn't...!" Damn it... the worst part is that I was indeed looking at her...

Once Koizumi indicated to Arakawa to leave, the brigade's five members went down to the agora and then we would start (or better said, Nagato) the following part of our plan... to apply the same technique of erasing memories and alterations to the surroundings for the SOS Brigade to be completely independent... with everything that carries. Koizumi would be a boy with powers, but he wouldn't have the connection with the Agency. Asahina would lose the link with her organization and Nagato had learned to separate herself from the IDE thanks to the synchronization with Asakura, so it would be a maverick, that would limit her powers and, according to what she told us, she would put her capacity to restore reality at risk in another moment... However, it was a risk that we were all willing to take.

Once the confirmations were made, Nagato put her hand up ready to begin.

This time, however, something distracted us all. An entourage of half dozen cars, some black and others gray, came into the park and settled around the agora. What I saw next was surprising...

From the black truck that I recognized as the same one that brought us to this place, Kimidori got out... followed by Asakura and Arakawa; Mori and the Tamaru brothers got out of a compact car. To my surprise, from the last black car a woman got out which's figure I'd recognize in any place... because it's perfect... but she had something different... the hair was different and with a different color... I imagine it was not to cause any confusions... It was Mikuru Asahina, adult version. From the gray cars, other not so known faces got out, but I could recognize two of them.

Fujiwara and Tachibana. Besides the ones I mentioned, there was at least some twenty people that I didn't recognize.

"You don't need to do this." Kimidori began, apparently aware of the brigade's intentions.

"With the sacrifice those two have made it's sufficient." Adult Asahina complemented with a different tone of voice and pointing with her face at Haruhi and I. "I wouldn't like to lose one of my best agents." She said getting close to her past 'self' and putting a hand on her head.

"Commander Michiru." Asahina respectfully greeted doing a reverence... so she calls herself Michiru.

"These invaders have caused already too much havoc... we also want a piece of them and we are anxious to pass them our bill."

"So don't do it... we all and many more that couldn't come will be more than happy to unite forces with you to end this situation." Tachibana added smiling.

"After all, it's also our reality." That was Fujiwara, apathetic.

"So if you allow it..." Adult Asahina said getting close to Haruhi. "...we will give you all the support you need."

Haruhi looked with suspicion at who was in front of her and then alternatively looked at her and at our Asahina. She seemed to understand the game and radiantly smiled. Just as she did with almost all the people that crossed her way, the easiest thing was to simply take the help, plus that eliminated the risk that Nagato couldn't restore things at the end.

"Okay... Let's do it then!"

Don't misunderstand her... I know inside her there are deep and complex feeling of gratitude towards everyone... but, what would be of her if out of the sudden she started to distribute thanks to everyone that helps her out? That would be a clear proof that her spirit is in decadency. Before we all started to go on our way, it was me who publically expressed gratitude in name of the whole brigade. In reality, it looked like a very moving act, and if we manage to transcend all this injustice, we should look for a way to compensate everyone...

* * *

The fact that the house that we got was so big had a particular purpose... I knew it wasn't for nothing that we were given a house where a family of ten members could easily live, being just two of us. This action, determined by the Agency would result providential for the following days.

"Now that we cannot go back to North High School..." Haruhi announced at the enormous dining room where all the involved comfortably fitted. "...we will have this house as our center of operations. I thank that everybody has decided to cooperate with us to defeat an enemy as the one we are facing and because of that, one of the highest honors will be awarded to you: everyone will be considered starting from this moment, a member of the SOS Battalion!"

She already started with her foolishness... someone must keep her feet on the ground... I will talk it with her in private later.

"Commander Suzumiya..." Koizumi called with that servant attitude that makes my blood boil, coming into the dining room with a small box in his hands. "Here's what you requested."

Haruhi took the small box and extracted... it must be a joke... it was a piece of cloth of military camouflage and a marker pen. Some seconds passed by in which Haruhi wrote with the marker pen and then she had a radiant and new bracelet that hung with enthusiasm on her left arm. The bracelet read: "Supreme Commander." Meanwhile, I negated with my head sighing and my right hand went back to the same place of always: my forehead.

"This is the first war reunion... it's time to be serious..."

And that's the way it happened. From that moment, it truly seemed a war reunion. Both the members of both Agencies and the terminals TFEI and even the ones that came from the future cooperated with information or suggesting plans to protect Haruhi and I... and even some suggested to look for a way to neutralize our antagonists... I don't want to sound indecisive, but "neutralize," given the references I have from movies and TV, it sounds like an elegant synonym of "assassinate," and I don't like the idea... I mean, wouldn't that put us at the same level as them...? It simply seems a little rough to me.

After a pair of hours of the session, some ideas were taken that we all considered would be useful, that particularly involved Haruhi, Asahina and I. Haruhi would take intensive sessions of introspection through the method of free association, given by the best man with the knowledge of her psyche... no other than Arakawa. It didn't surprise me much... years ago she should've gone to the psychiatrist either way. Asahina would take personal defense courses and other type of "classified" instruction by the hand of her future "self" and by the very Fujiwara... I made it a purpose to be present to at least one. It would also be good for me to have a small induction into personal defense and I'd get "tools" to avoid being as vulnerable as I usually am when facing any member of the SOS-Ni Brigade... they will make me stop being useless, in simple words. I thought I heard Kimidori say that some restrictions would be taken off Nagato, giving her a greater range of discretional action. Koizumi would have a higher grade in the Agency, and therefore, certain ordering power.

"I know everyone has his or her own purpose to be here." Haruhi began once the duties were distributed. "You must know that it makes me happy that you understand how important it is that we all participate together in this... I always wanted to have an adventure like this one, but I also miss my life and my family... and I've only gone half a day without them... so I ask you not to lose sight of the purpose you follow. If you don't forget it and work with effort, I'm sure we'll reach the future we all want. Thank you for coming and we'll see you tomorrow at ten on the dot to begin."

I had already heard serious speeches from Haruhi. But this time everyone, even Fujiwara, always a mocker and an unfriendly person, seemed to identify himself with these words. The true problem lies in the fact that everybody is afraid of change, and that makes maturing very hard for people. Haruhi and all of us couldn't be the same all our lives... this change, although radical, dangerous and surprising, well could be the breakpoint that makes it possible to integrate a personality so tricky as Haruhi's... I hope it happens this way and given our situation, I hope to arrive to the end alive to see such accomplishment.

* * *

It was a thing of minutes for the one that would be my house now to get almost completely empty, it was around nine at night. During the morning, Koizumi's colleagues had made sure to condition the place with everything needed, and that included a full wardrobe and some other adjuncts, there was even a new video game console. I went to the kitchen, also duly stocked, searching for something for diner.

"Tomorrow will be a great day, no?" Asakura asked with her unmatched smile.

"It seems like it... I'm curious... are you renting the apartment our Asakura lived in?"

"No. Nagato is doing me the favor to have me as her guest. After we finish all this, I will look for a way to settle."

Interesting... Nagato having a guest... I wonder what they talk about... although now that I think about it, not only it's implicated the fact that it would be a spectacle to get for this Asakura all the advantages that ours had before she disappeared. It seems more like Nagato eventually feels alone. Every day I'm more convinced that she gets closer to the canon of proper behavior of humans. That makes me happy. A little after, Asahina, Koizumi and Nagato joined us in that huge kitchen, and they quickly prepared sandwiches for everybody.

"I see you prepared diner... great, I'm starving." Haruhi said walking in. She wore some pijamas and a towel wrapped over her head indicating that she had just taken a bath. Without asking for permission she took a sandwich and poured herself a glass of milk. "It's really good! Did you make it, Mikuru?"

"Eh... no... it wasn't me... it was Asakura..."

"Seriously? You cook really well, Ryoko..." Since when this fresh girl talks to her using her first name...? Oh, who cares... "By the way, Kyon, the bath is ready."

A generalized smile covered the face of the presents, mine included, although in my case, it was from embarrassment... wait, two people didn't smile... Nagato due to the same motives of always... and Asahina... who looked uncomfortable with the whole situation... before I could inquire about it, she literally got up in a jump.

"I-I'm going now... I'll see you here early tomorrow." She said without finishing her food yet.

"Asahina... is everything...?" I tried to ask.

"See you tomorrow!" She said without letting me finish and without looking at me, practically running towards the door.

"Well... it looks like she was in a hurry... ironic considering that she can travel in time." Haruhi casually said and looked for something else to put in her mouth.

I stayed calmed after that, the only one that apparently understood what was happening besides me was Koizumi... and the truth is that I'm not eager to discuss something so personal with him.

"I'm leaving too." The esper indicated a little after with the smile of always. "If you need anything at any time, let me know." He politely wished us all good night and left.

"We are leaving too." Asakura said lastly, speaking for both aliens. Not even thirty seconds went by and both had closed the door behind them to get lost in the night.

* * *

Following Haruhi's suggestion, I took some pajamas, a towel and I got ready to take a bath. Today was a very long day for me in many ways and more than corporal tiredness, my mind screamed at me to rest. According to the protocol that I had, the last action of the day would be to look for a room to sleep. At a first look at the place I noticed there were special rooms for this purpose on the second level. I directed myself there and Haruhi waited at the stairs with a triumphant expression.

"This house has four bedrooms, all very big." She said.

"That's very good... there will no problems settling down.

"Yes, that won't be a problem... there are four bedrooms, and a master suite..."

At that moment, I was already at the highest part of the stairs... she told me that to... Wait a moment! She wants a race! While I arrived at that conclusion, we both started running towards the door at the end of the hall, the one that surely corresponded to such master suite, without a doubt the biggest one, comfortable and with a better view than the other bedrooms. The one that arrived first, would get it.

I think it's unnecessary to say that there's no way I can beat this girl in any type of competition other than the dialectic, the same way you can surely imagine, I arrived with close to five meters of disadvantage, which Haruhi took advantage of by entering the room and closing the door behind her, making me almost run into the door.

"Okay, you win." I commented recovering my breath and knocking a couple of times on the door, locked from the inside. "At least let me see what it looks like."

Haruhi partially opened the door with that expression that she always has when she wins at anything.

"Fine, but don't even think about trying to get it tomorrow, I won it today and it will be mine forever."

"Forever is a lot of time... you don't expect to live here until then, do you?"

Haruhi didn't respond and opened the door letting me in. Fuck my luck... it really is a grand room. It's at least as big as the size of the living room of my old house, there's a king size bed, and the wall against the door has an enormous window from where great part of the city can be seen, illuminated now by the nocturnal lights. I'm sure that the crystal is polarized and one can only see from the inside to the outside and no the other way around. I stood some minutes in silence looking at the view from the window without saying a word. Haruhi was sitting on the bed, also in silence. I turned to her a little after.

"You did very well today. You managed to inspire everyone and I am sure that they will give their best." I told her. I knew that she needed comforting words as much as I did. She didn't respond. She looked with thoughtfulness towards some point on the carpet... Damn it! This room has carpet! "Anyway... good night."

I said my goodbyes and I began to walk towards the door, I still had to choose a room to sleep in... I'm not so ambitious, a twin bed or even a sleeping bag would be good for me in this moment.

I was about to leave the room when something stopped me. I had something attached to the sleeve of my pajamas that stopped me from continuing walking. When I turned around, I found it was Haruhi's hand. Looking at her face, I noticed a strong blush on the same... her mouth formed an inverted "v," the space between her eyebrows was contracted and she looked to the side, the same gesture that when I met her. I think that I've mentioned it before, but any show of emotion on her face makes her look incredible pretty. Having said anything at that moment would've been a mistake that surely would break the magical moment. So, I didn't say anything. I simply closed the bedroom door with myself still inside.

What happened that night? Something more special than all the closed spaces together... however, this time I won't share it... it was our first night and I believe that merits being in my heart only. I know that at some point in my life, or at the same instant of my death, this memory will give me quietude.

 **Chapter 7.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes** : Through my years in life I've learn that the most magical and special moments in life are not to be published. Sometimes, what really push up us and make us happy deserve to be just in our memories, deep inside in our hearts. Leaving apart the corny, the story become serious from now on. I hope you are enjoying it, and please, leave a review. See you all on the next update!

 **Translator Notes** : Guys! I'm sorry it took me a little longer to have this chapter ready. It was an unusual busy week for me, but here it is. I hope you are still enjoying the story. I will try to get the next chapter much faster, hehe. What did you guys think of Haruhi's plan? I bet you weren't expecting this, and we don't even know the rest of the plan. Have you wondered what they can do to defeat the SOS-Ni Brigade? This chapter was the beginning of the climax and the next few chapters will be full of action, like I promised before. I hope you're ready. Also, didn't you love the final part of this chapter? That was such a great scene. I can totally picture Haruhi pulling that. I know, it sucks Kyon didn't want to share with us this time but we can all use our imaginations. Haha. Until next time!


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 ready... I particularly liked this chapter... I think that you'll like it as well, if that's the case, it would great if you let me know! Enjoy! By the way, here's a little disclaimer: "serpent skin" is a term property of J. J. Benitez from the book series "Caballo de Troya."

* * *

 **Chapter 8.**

Time never went by as out of phase as today did for me... I still can't understand... I can't even coordinate the thoughts that I try to express, I will do my best effort to describe my situation... damn it, I'm so confused... I don't know how long has it been since today's nightmare ended, but it must've been a considerable lapse... I know because several police cars and ambulances make their emergency sounds play at the distance... It will take them some more minutes to arrive... I can see a very well-known black vehicle getting close to us... it still making a turn to brake and Koizumi is already getting off the copilot's side... he runs towards us as if in slow motion, his face carries a mixture between fair and guilt. At some meters from us, to my right there are the crystal walls of a bank's branch office, in which I can see our reflections... Haruhi and I walk, also with that strange slow motion effect, I'm helping her walk... we are both covered in dust, without a doubt from the debris from the destroyed and partially set on fire street behind us... part of our faces and clothes are covered with blood, warm still... by the way... how many people have ended wounded...? Jesus, Mohammed, Buda or whoever your name is... I beg you... I hope nobody else has died... nobody else...? how did this happen...? I must concentrate... do a recount...

* * *

"Wake up, bum!" I hear her, but I'm tired and I'm sleepy. I won't respond. "Stop ignoring me!" This time I feel the impact of something soft on my face, surely a pillow... I don't think I can keep pretending any longer.

"What do you want...?" I asked without opening my eyes.

"I want to ask you something."

"And can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"No... so you're better off waking up or I swear I will pour water on you."

I only opened my right eye. The nocturnal light that passed through the immense window of the wall against the room allowed me to see Haruhi, seated and wrapped on a bed sheet, with that eternal upset gesture on her face. In some way, it made me happy that was the first thing I see waking up. I know there's nothing between that thin sheet and her skin and it's weird seeing her without her yellow band on her hair. A look at the nightstand on her side indicated that there were only some minutes left before midnight... It took this girl less than an hour and a half of sleep to recover all the energy she usually has... she surely woke up a pair of minutes ago and not being able to fall back asleep, she decided to take advantage of her only available victim: me.

I slapped my face a couple of times to completely wake myself up and I sat as well. I've never bragged about my physique, in fact, I believe I'm thinner than what I should, however, some of my usual love for soccer and all the dumb sport situations in which Haruhi has made me participate have given me a certain condition... my shoulders have recently been shaped in a very favorable way, the same way as my abdomen. I bring this up because I can see she noticed it when I sat up since I didn't cover my torso. And yes, the sudden and fleeting blush that covered her face by realizing I noticed the way she was looking at me made me feel proud.

"And well...? What did you want to ask me?" I said to relax her tension.

"I want you to tell me everything."

"Everything about what?"

"About everything... from when we met and what you've done with the other brigade members."

"Is it necessary?" I asked scratching the back of my neck.

"Very much."

"Fine... but I will need some coffee..."

"Your grandma can get it for you! Start talking, damn it!"

I sonorously smiled with that statement... of course, Haruhi becoming a docile girl and serving me coffee at an unearthly hour... it was stupid of my part to even suggest it.

That way, like a bad writer, I began to tell her about how the brigade was founded and how it was revealed to me the identity of all its members. I didn't put great emphasis at how I discovered a way to come back, when her melancholy almost dragged us to a new world, although I could notice how she almost smiled remembering our first kiss. I told her about the fraudulent way in which we won that baseball game against that college team whose name I can't remember. She looked at me with hawks' eyes when I told her about my first introduction as John Smith traveling back in time, and not so much because of how important the trip was but because I had to spend three years in the same room with Asahina... I had to be very clear that time was frozen still. I told her about Koizumi's plan on the deserted island... during that part I made a special mention on how she looked with her swimming suit and our talk inside the little cavern, while we reconstructed the crime's scene, I couldn't stop looking at her legs... and I let her know because I know she likes I compliment that part of her body, and I also know she loves showing them off, in the end, she knows they're so very beautiful.

At this point we had to make a little pause, because the conversation changed directions and it heated up and we ended... well, repeating the actions of some hours ago. Forty-five minutes, two dozen sighs and a half liter of sweat after, we resumed the talk. She looked at me with disbelief when I told her about the more than fifteen thousand times that the summer vacations were repeated the year before last, the filming of our horrible movie series Z and how she changed the world thanks to her ridiculous ideas. The maddening episode of her disappearance, when I traveled several times in time and so many things that happened to me, among them, being stabbed by the defective Asakura.

"And why did you decide to come back to this world?" She interrupted at this point.

"Because I'm an irremediable idiot."

No insisted, she has an idea of the true answer to that question, but the mere thought of it makes me cloy with the corniness of it.

I was finishing telling her what (really) happened in our trip to the mountains when the sunrise surprised us and we decided to postpone the remaining of the story for another time. The sky was painted violet being close to six in the morning and we decided to take a pair of hours to sleep and be ready at least an hour before the battalion arrived.

"I have one last question." She said, laying next to me, with her back towards me.

"What is it...? I hope it doesn't require a long explanation..."

"What's going on between us?"

That's a question which I'd also like to give an answer to. I mean, I can't affirm that we are boyfriend and girlfriend (what a rare definition) ... or lovers... honestly, I couldn't even tell we are friends, she is important to me, of course, but I couldn't define in what terms she is... have you ever had the feeling that something extremely important passes by you without you realizing it? That's more or less what I was experimenting at that moment... my instincts told me that the answer to this question would be determinant at some point... I should adequately formulate it, or without a doubt I would end up saying something stupid which I would regret. This reflection took a considerable while. When I tried to say it to Haruhi, light snores escaped her chest. That gave me more time to think on the answer to that question... I knew I'd work on it, but not that morning... I held my companion by the waist, letting her corporal heat lull me during the short sleep time we had left.

* * *

Being around noon, everybody was dedicated to the chore that corresponded to each: Haruhi had a pair of hours in session behind closed doors with Arakawa, Mori along with other two men that had the appearance of professional chefs were on charge of catering and other people were doing things I ignore. In my particular case, I was in a spacious room on the first floor, the stave floor and the absence of furniture other than a Daisho at the end of said lounge told me it was a Dojo. With me, there were Asahina, Fujiwara and Asahina (adult) in her role of the commander Michiru. We had drawn lots and I got assigned the training in the afternoon. No one showed any objections that I was present while Asahina was being capacitated, so I dedicated myself to watch them waiting for my turn. By the way, this morning, Asahina arrived with a completely different attitude from yesterday's... she had recovered that spark that made her a guardian angel from the old club room, I even consider that she arrived with more joy than usual, since she managed to spread that spirit to everybody that was home at this moment, she also prepared a tea that conquered people with only the aroma.

"Eh... What's this?" Asahina asked once it was indicated to her to put a pair of gloves on... I don't think gloves does not exist in the future, right?

"They're enhancers." Fujiwara responded without bothering looking at her. "They're used only in infiltration missions, but their use against other people is prohibited, except in emergency situations like this one. You! Give me that!" He ordered directing at me and pointing at some tables on my right.

I took in a squared shape of some ten inches each side and one inch thick and I threw it at him. He got a step away from Asahina and it held it at the level of her face. He won't pretend she breaks it with a hit, will he? I don't think she can break it... I don't think anybody present could break it.

"Break the table." He ordered.

Asahina looked at the table with bewilderment, and after with some fear... if she used all her strength, not only she couldn't break said table, but she would surely hurt her hand.

"Don't you think this is a little fast? Today's the first training day." I said in the face of Asahina's indecision. Fujiwara made an irritated face. I didn't care.

"Either shut up or leave?" The mocking bastard responded faithful to his habit of not looking at you while he speaks. "Hit the table already!" He said elevating the tone of his voice. Asahina (adult) simply observed in silence.

Asahina (small) finally made up her mind and threw a punch against the table. The position of her feet was bad, let's not even talk of the fist she formed with the thumb in among the other fingers, and the force would surely serve as a barely perceptible push. To my surprise and Asahina's, the table didn't break... it exploded in little splinters as soon as her hand made contact with it. Fujiwara didn't change his irritated expression, Asahina (adult) openly smiled while Asahina looked at her own hand confused.

"You will also get enhancers for your feet, they will allow you to run a little faster, jump higher and you will have the same effect when hitting." Asahina (adult) added. So that's the trick. When I ran into Asahina-Ni, it didn't seem to me that her physical appearance was so different than our Asahina's, it seemed to me that such a small body couldn't have such monstrous strength. That's why she gave me such a brutal beat down in our last encounter. "I also finished configuring your TPDD to do discretional jumps in the space time." She got closer to her and then Fujiwara exited the room, staying close to the access to the dojo. "The technique that I'm going to teach you is complicated at the beginning, but it will be very helpful to you when it's time to face another agent that had similar technology to ours. To use it you must have a modified TPDD like the one you now have."

Both Asahinas had a small conversation in a low voice at the center of the dojo, in which adult Asahina gave indications while her younger 'self' listened to with her face brimming in concentration. Once the instructions ended, the time arrived for the demonstration.

Asahina (adult) didn't even change positions, she simple vanished in the air... she reappeared in a different spot of the dojo at the speed of a blink. Lastly, she materialized again next to Asahina (small); in her right hand, there was a container with four disposable cups newly bought at a famous coffee shop chain, which she would distribute later to all the present. Asahina (small) was so impressed, that I feel she was close to clapping.

"Astounding!" She said at the end. It truly was.

"Now, you try." Asahina (adult) indicated.

Asahina (small) made that curious concentration gesture that touches us again, she scanned with her eyes the room and profoundly sighed. She then disappeared from our sight to then appear close to the Daisho at the end, the action repeated, but this time she appeared next to the door, she disappeared a third time resurging at the center of the lounge... this time, however, she looked pale and she couldn't do the next jump... she slowly lost her equilibrium and took several small steps towards her left before irredeemably falling.

"I forgot to mention that perhaps you will feel some nauseous the first times..." Asahina (adult) indicated. I know what she means, I don't understand how they don't vomit every time they use that infernal apparatus.

Asahina (small) took some seconds more to situate herself and stand up again. Fujiwara soundly laughed in the face of her initial failure. Both versions of Asahina ignored him. She repeated the experiment several times, but the results didn't change.

"What is she doing?" Haruhi asked, seated next to me while she ate a slice of homemade pizza... When did she get here? "You can have some?" She said extending her food to me.

I thanked her and I accepted the offer at the same time that I offered her the coffee that had just been given to me and which I hadn't tasted yet. While she drank it, I explained to her what Asahina (small) was trying to accomplish.

"Mikuru!" Haruhi called, with a full mouth still, standing up and getting close to our time traveler. "Why don't you try to concentrate on this?"

Haruhi showed her my coffee cup and put it at the center of the room, then she sat down again next to me. Asahina (small) doubtfully looked at the cup and searched for approval from Asahina (adult). She smiled and assented in conformity. Asahina (small) concentrated again, but this time she didn't take her eyes away from the coffee... and she disappeared... she made herself visible one, two, tree, four times! She stopped doing it the tenth time, she looked a little confused, shaky and with an agitated breathing, but she didn't fall again, only Fujiwara didn't return the white and bright teeth smile that she gifted us. She triumphantly took the coffee cup and did a last spatial-temporal jump, ending in front of us standing.

"Thank you." She radiantly said returning the cup to Haruhi.

"I knew you could do it. You are the battalion's mascot after all!" Haruhi responded, she then turned to Asahina (adult). "I only recruit people that I know have the potential."

* * *

It was past two in the afternoon, I walked next to Haruhi through the halls of the house without talking about anything important particularly, and like that we arrived at the balcony and once again she got serious.

"How did you hurt yourself last week?"

"I told you already, I got into a fight."

"With whom?"

"Asahina-Ni..."

She stayed reflecting for a moment.

"With what weapon did she attack you?"

"She crushed me with only her hands."

"Did you put up a fight?"

"I couldn't even use my hands to defend myself."

"Well... it doesn't matter... Mikuru can take care of her, right?"

I didn't respond. Agreeing with her would be lying to her. I'm not trying to discredit Asahina's capacities, but this time she wasn't only facing someone with more experience, more skilled and stronger... we are talking about someone that doesn't know of remorse and she won't doubt to hurt or even kill Asahina or any of us.

"I don't doubt that we can take them," I resolved, "but I don't want you to underestimate them."

"Everything will be fine!" She responded with a smile as bright as the Pleiades seen through the Hubble while forming the "V" of "victory" with her right hand. I'd love to have at least a little of that confidence. "I must go back to Mr. Arakawa, we still have a lot to talk."

"What have you talked about all morning?" I asked watching her come back inside the house.

"Make your own appointment, nosey guy!"

* * *

After the food, worthy of a gourmet restaurant, I went back to the dojo being almost three in the afternoon. Fujiwara had arrived some minutes ago and was checking his briefcase.

"Are you ready?" The time traveler asked with indifference.

After I assented, I heard Asahina's voice (adult) saying:

"Mikuru, come with me to the kitchen, I'd love to try some of that tea that you make, everybody has told me wonderful things about it."

Asahina (small) gladly accepted and both women abandoned the lounge.

"Take your clothes off." Fujiwara ordered while shaking an aerosol can.

"Pardon me?"

"Do I really have to repeat myself?" In the face of my stupid incredulous expression, in fact he had to repeat it: "Take your clothes off."

I obeyed at the end. Yes, it was extremely uncomfortable to undress in front of someone of the same sex, although I believe that I'd feel a greater embarrassment if one of the girls was present. Once naked (yes, completely), Fujiwara got closer to me with the aerosol can in his hand.

"Stop!" I firmly said with my right palm raised at face level. "What is that thing?"

"I won't give you a lecture about technology, I will only tell you that it is an armor."

With that answer, I let him proceed. He was embarrassingly meticulous when it came to spray me with such armor. That has perhaps been the longest fifteen minutes of my life.

"What type of armor is this?" I asked certainly intrigued.

"It's known as 'serpent skin'..." He began to explain. I think that this is the first conversation I have with him. "It can resist a shot from a 9mm parabellum at point-blank, it is also good to repel sharp objects. Basically, there isn't a weapon in this era that could go through it. Plus, it allows your body to naturally transpire, it's odorless, biodegradable and hypoallergenic."

"Wow, in the future they do have interesting things..."

"Future? This thing exists since the middle of last century! However, it has a weakness... it won't help you against punches. It can save your life if someone shoots you or tries to stab you, but you will get hits with a barely less intensity than what they would regularly be... Stupid!"

"It's not a reason for you to offend me..."

"I'm not talking to you, but to myself... I forgot the blood protection... get dressed, I will bring the person who should give you that protection."

I did as he indicated me and some minutes later he came back with Asakura. I've noticed some things that are different between this Asakura and ours... beginning with the fact that this one doesn't want to kill me, of course, but it has more to do with her personality. It's something like a combination between two versions of her that I've previously seen, so agreeable as the first one, but with a touch of coquetry that reminds me of the second one. She's also very effusive and she's constantly encouraging Nagato to try new things or to be more expressive in her interactions with others. Call me crazy, but I think she is a good influence on her.

"Someone forgot the blood protection, I see." She said smiling getting close to me.

"I don't even know what that is." I responded waiting for an explanation.

"To avoid any strange substance or illness to attack you, we must inject you Nano-machines that prevent those problems. I will take care of that, I know the vice of Nagato-Ni and I know what type of venom she likes to leave in her victims." If she had the intention to calm me down, she roundly failed. "But we will have a small problem... Fujiwara told me that he had sprayed you with the "serpent skin," which means that I need to find another way to supply the Nano-machines, because my injectors can't go through the armor."

"Your injectors." I asked. Her response was pointing to her superior incisive teeth. "And how will you do it then?"

"I must inject them in some place of your body that isn't protected. My suggestion would be to directly deposit them in your tongue."

"Eh... wouldn't it be possible to do it in another part... you know... to avoid any misunderstandings." And it isn't that the idea resulted so scary... but I don't even want to imagine the consequences if Haruhi came in here while the process was being carried out or that Fujiwara went and told what happened. Fortunately, Asakura seemed more aware of the implications that her proposal carried.

"Then... I got it! I will run a diagnosis to know if there's any parts with low protection on your skin and I will inject the Nano-machines there... we will kill two birds with one stone, because we will see if there are weak spots in your defense, are you ok with that?"

"Yes, it's much better."

Asakura asked me to deeply breath while she took my hands, just as Asahina did when we were attacked. She directly looked into my eyes for some seconds. She didn't even breath during that time.

"There's a pair of security breaches in the armor. The most suitable to inject the blood protection would be the one that's here." She said pointing at the lobe of my right ear.

"Oh... perhaps we should opt for the second one... I'm terrible ticklish on that zone..." If you don't believe me, ask the crazy girl that's in therapy right now...

"Are you sure? The second security breach is on your left inner thigh." She said arching her eyebrows and tilting her face to the side without stopping looking at me while she bit her lower lip... how can this girl have the faculty to create a sexual tension out of something so serious...?

"It will be the ear then." I responded lightly inclining myself and putting the selected lobe close to her face. It only took some seconds and I must admit that it was an agreeable sensation, despite the little pain that was produced when she dug her fangs in my skin.

"Done." She said with that unique smile as soon as she finished. She directed herself to Fujiwara. "I leave the rest in your hands."

We both saw the alien exit the dojo.

"Take your pants off, let's finish this." He ordered as soon as we were alone... damn it.

* * *

The following days passed by without many changes. The nights I spent sleepless talking to Haruhi about my adventures and misadventures. In almost all of them existed a certain element that made her think that I had some kind of preference for her. Perhaps she's right.

"Admit it! You can't be without me!" She arrogantly spitted in the early morning of Thursday... I remember that talk with special affection. We were in the bedroom at around five in the morning and there wasn't still any traces of sunlight. The bedroom lights were off, and the moon, in its full phase, seemed bigger and more luminous than ever. She was seated on my lap and her arms rested on my shoulders, surrounding my neck. I only partially distinguished her features given the little light, but I could perfectly appreciate the supernatural glow of her amber eyes. She never looked more beautiful to me.

But let's not skip ahead.

* * *

Starting Monday, a private tutor showed up in the mornings, ordered by the Agency to keep Haruhi and I current with the classes that we lost by not going to school. Asahina, Koizumi and Nagato kept having regular classes and by consensus was decided that they would continue attending to avoid suspicion.

Fujiwara and Asahina (adult) concentrated themselves on giving me some training on martial arts. My head is a little hard, so I couldn't advance further than the basic stuff. With Asahina (small) the issue was different. On Tuesday, she came in with Fujiwara and Asahina (adult) to the dojo and they had a very small session behind closed doors. Five minutes after I could go in and I watched with amusement that our time traveler, renowned in the art of making tea, now was an expert in Ving Tsun and could be a worthy opponent of the very same Yip Man. Fujiwara was on charge of the combat practices and was particularly rough with Asahina (small). Although that didn't bother me too much, I knew that was the best way for her to become stronger.

Wednesday afternoon, after dinner and the activities of the battalion were finished, Asakura happily talked to Mori in the kitchen. Both insisted that Nagato picked the dinner menu for the next day, Thursday. It was a happy and long period of cheers which all the brigade joined in a little after, encouraging our favorite alien to decide. Expecting, we had to only wait three blinks to hear her inexpressive words:

"Onion soup, wild rice and beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes and buttered veggies."

The celebration got even bigger after hearing such a French menu. Asakura, evidently happy, held Nagato's hands.

"Tomorrow, after school you and I will go to the commercial district to search for the ingredients, ok?"

"The four of us will go." Haruhi intervened just as radiant. I understand that by "the four" I am included... I don't mind accompanying these trio, the truth is that I need some distraction... we all need it.

That's how we got to Thursday.

* * *

"We will take this at night when going home." Asakura said arriving from school to our house. It was a paper bag.

"What's that?" Haruhi asked intrigued. Asakura murmured something into her ear and she smiled with complicity. She then turned to me. "Nagato shouldn't come close to this bag until tonight."

I assented without question... girls stuff, I suppose.

As you can expect when it comes to an outing with three girls, the supposedly run to search for ingredients to cook soon degenerated into a long visit to all the stores of the shopping mall we were at. We went through clothing stores, electronics, cosmetics and a spa where they each got a relaxing massage...

"You should stop carrying the world over your shoulders." The young woman that gave a violent massage to Haruhi's shoulders said.

"You have no idea..." She responded.

After that, there was a meal in a known fast food chain and diverse and happy talks about trivial things... I think it's the first time that I see Haruhi so content without doing something crazy... I mean, she is finally achieving one of the goals she had when I met her... before founding the SOS Brigade... do you remember it? 'to search for aliens, time travelers, espers and sliders and to have a good time with them...' well, we were with a pair of aliens right now and the truth is that we were having a very good time. Even Nagato, without saying or doing anything more than simply coming with us seemed to eat with special enthusiasm.

Haruhi directed the entourage and Asakura tended to take Nagato by her hand to drag her to the next activity. It was really one of those moments that you don't want it to end... but it had to end...

* * *

We were on the top level of the small mall and we were going towards the escalator to go to the pet store in the lower level. The sun crossed across the skylights of the ceiling indicating that it was around four in the afternoon. Exactly at the half way point of the escalator, Asakura stopped in short and took Haruhi's hand with force, forcing her to get behind her next to Nagato and I. Something is wrong... people seemed a little rowdy and walked confused to the exit doors of the mall... the curious part is that just the way the exited, they then entered back again...

"It's a band of Mobius... nobody can exit or enter... we are trapped inside..." Asakura said, she sounded as if all the happiness she experienced only some seconds ago had been drained from her...

"But... How...?" Haruhi asked a little afraid.

"Nagato-Ni..." Our slider responded getting from between her clothes her emblematic combat knife. She looked towards the ascending escalator next to our original destination.

The mechanism was letting appear, little by little, the emotionless empty eyes and the meagre and petite figure of Nagato-Ni.

The people around us surprised looked at Asakura wielding her knife and given the paleness in our faces, assumed that they were in danger. In a blink, we were alone in the pavilion. Nagato-Ni walked a pair of steps away from the escalator. Her lips vertiginously moved, it was the only thing I could see. Haruhi and I were projected out several meters behind, a defensive move of our own Nagato who avoided we fell into the void when the ground cracked open under us. There were screams of confusion and a lot of dust blocking our vision.

"It's a bomb!" Someone yelled in the lower level and the turmoil formed. Unfortunately for them, nobody could leave the mall and everyone that tried to leave ended colliding with the people that went just behind them. However, that panorama wasn't even half of what we had in front of us. Nagato and Asakura exploited all their potential to face Nagato-Ni, who lashed out with all her immense power against the four of us, seemingly, without any effort.

"We have to leave." I indicated to Haruhi taking her hand and trying to make way towards the emergency stairs.

"And leave them alone with that? No way!" She responded full of determination.

"We don't have a chance against her! We would get on their way instead of helping them!"

Hearing my voice, Nagato-Ni turned towards us. Only that look was needed for her two opponents to fly off towards the stores at the end of the pavilion leaving Haruhi and I at her mercy, then she turned those cold eyes like liquid nitrogen towards the skylights and these burst exactly over us. They were very thick glasses and the chips were bigger than half a meter in length... She'd let gravity to do the rest of the work. I instinctively held Haruhi putting her body under mine... the pain was very intense, but surprised I noticed that although my shirt was being torn to shreds, no crystal went through my skin... the armor worked better than I thought. When I raised my gaze again, many of the glass chips were nailed into the ground around us, my back hurt terribly, but it was okay. Haruhi wasn't wounded either.

Nagato-Ni began to walk towards us, with a slow pace, but determined. An explosion interrupted her path, Nagato came out from behind the counter of the gift shop which she had terrorized moments before and she had ran at the speed of a blink towards her counterpart making the ground in front of her explode. The jolt shook a good part of the construction tearing more screams from the crowd downstairs. Nagato-Ni did a move similar to as if she was shaking dirt from her left hand, this time Nagato was ready and received the attack with a barrier of energy... it protected her, but she was dragged several meters behind.

Taking advantage of that distraction, I took Haruhi again by the hand and I started to run among the glass blades towards the opposite side of Nagato-Ni searching for the emergency stairs... although I was worried about not being able to exit the perimeter of the mall thanks to the distortion that Nagato-Ni had created that prevented people from leaving the place. That thought was just crossing my mind when from the coffee and shakes business, on the opposite side from where Nagato landed, Asakura came out with a jump taking advantage of the apparent distraction of Nagato-Ni, she threw herself like a blue arrow with her knife in front of her face directly against her neck at a scary speed... for a moment I thought that she'd make it... Nagato-Ni didn't even have to turn towards Asakura. She simply raised her right arm, intercepting her in the air and taking her hand, doing in the process a lock that bent, in an unnatural and very painful way in my opinion, the own right arm of Asakura and she threw her without much effort at some meters of us. Asakura tumbled several times on the ground, lifting fragments of the tile with each one, until she stopped doing some little acrobatics and landing again standing.

"Ryoko!" Haruhi yelled to our now dirty and wounded slider noticing something in her hand, which apparently wasn't broken like I thought at the beginning. "There's something in your right hand...!"

"Oh...! Thanks...!" Asakura looked at her hand... her ring and pinky fingers of her right hand were covered with a blue substance slightly luminous. With a calm that still today freezes my blood, she changed the knife to her left hand and with a single gash she cut both fingers... she cut both fingers! "It was necessary... don't worry, I will be fine." I suppose that's what she meant when she told us about 'the venom' that Nagato-Ni tends to use.

I turned towards where both Nagatos kept interchanging attacks. Ours protected herself while throwing everything the surroundings offered her as a potential weapon against her opponent, but the second was guarded in such a way that each object projected against her collided with an invisible barrier that pulverized everything in which the improvised projectiles were turned into.

"Nagato! The Moebius band is vulnerable towards the north!" Asakura screamed pointing to the wall to our right.

At her indication, both aliens moved at a supersonic speed until being left at a few meters from said wall, and coordinated as if they were a pair of experienced earth masters, executed the same move with their hands making explode the wall towards the outside, the street. Just as Asakura had prognosticated, the distortion created by Nagato-Ni lifted and people could finally start evacuating the mall.

"Jump." Nagato ordered us with her usual and inexpressive tone of voice. I didn't doubt it not even for a second, I had already seen the effectiveness of the 'serpent skin,' so I took Haruhi by the waist and I threw myself towards the close to ten meters that separated us from the ground. I landed on my back on the hood of a compact car... once again, the pain was intense, but we both arrived without major injuries. At that moment Asakura and Nagato were imitating us when a new gigantic attack of Nagato-Ni reduced to dust the whole side of the building, even reaching the construction of the sidewalk across from it.

Asakura and Nagato landed on their feet next to us. We had very little time to our advantage.

"What do we do?" I truly needed to know.

"The best thing will be to escape, search for help from other terminals or from the Agency, Nagato-Ni is too much for just the two of us..." Asakura responded running at a speed that allowed us to keep up with her.

"Sending coordinates..." Nagato said next to us.

Something was projected out from the upper lever of the mall that we had just left and landed just in front of us making an enormous crater in the middle of the street. Nagato-Ni incorporated herself from said place with that phantasmagoric and sinister look and started to attack us again. Our Nagato, having learned part of the modus operandi of her opponent, directly ran towards her without throwing any objects at her. She managed to take her by the hands, which confused Nagato-Ni... seconds after, Asakura repeated her thrust with the combat knife... Nagato-Ni managed to partially avoid it, instead of receiving the attack with her chest the way it was planned, the blade perforated from her clavicle to her shoulder articulation. From the deepness that the blade reached, I'd swear it hit the bone... as soon as Asakura's feet touched the ground, she potently kicked her stomach throwing her towards the building on the right sidewalk, destroying a parked car in the process.

"Fast! We don't have much time!" Asakura pressured and Nagato ran towards us. She was right... we didn't have much time... in fact, we didn't have any time at all.

A passenger bus went flying towards our aliens. Nagato avoided it by millimeters. Asakura, however, received the impact directly, which dragged her along with the enormous vehicle to the opposite sidewalk from where Nagato-Ni was standing. The whole construction collapsed leaving Asakura trapped under several tons of debris.

Nagato-Ni reappeared on scene and with a jump arrived at the middle of the street... a Nagato that observed with apprehension the pile of debris where Asakura, surely very injured, fought to come to the surface again... an irascible and furious Nagato... Nagato-Ni didn't even have the chance to blink. Our alien clapped her hands together some millimeters away from the body of her opponent... to be only a clap it was incredibly soundly... we, standing behind her, didn't realize the true intensity of such a clap, but yet, we were both knocked down by its force. However, in front of her, where Nagato-Ni was, things were very different. The expansive wave of said attack had thrown each car parked against the buildings, had made each window on the street burst, it lifted the pavement and violently shook the electrical wiring. It's the first time that I see such demonstration of power from our Nagato.

Apparently, the attack ended with that. Nagato-Ni wasn't there, I assumed that she had been so damaged with that last attack that she opted to escape. Even so, Nagato looked for some seconds at the surroundings. She started walking towards us at the end.

"Help Ryoko!" Haruhi indicated when seeing her walk towards us first.

"Don't worry, she can come out with her own means. You are priority..."

The following happened in the blink of an eye... Nagato didn't finish her sentence... the ground shook violently and in the same spot where she had received the attack, Nagato-Ni appeared again. Her left arm previously injured had disappeared, and in its place, there was a plasma (I don't know what other way to describe it) of dazzling light that dripped an incandescent liquid that perforated the ground when falling.

The violence from the impact threw Nagato over us while a small surge of blood bathed us. Haruhi and I received her in our arms and for a moment I thought the worst...

"Yuki!" Haruhi yelled...

"I'm okay..." She responded... to our surprise, she wasn't even hurt.

The three of us looked ahead... shit... no...

Asakura was suspended in the air. She managed to arrive at the right moment to push Nagato towards us receiving the impact directly on her back. The incandescent light tentacle of Nagato-Ni was going through her from side to side. The combat knife fell out of her left hand, bouncing once on the ground.

Nagato-Ni didn't manage to eliminate our Nagato, but it seemed she was satisfied to have Asakura impaled. The energy arm blurred and Nagato-Ni dedicated a last and cold look to us before disappearing the same way the first time we saw her.

"Asakura!" I yelled, trying to incorporate myself.

"Ryoko!" That was Haruhi, imitating me.

Asakura started to fall like a puppet which had its strings cut off. As it was expected, Nagato was faster and without saying a word she managed to receive Asakura in her arms. The slider shook and given the magnitude of the wound and the burns, I can say she was going through an incredible pain... Nagato looked shocked... why isn't she doing anything?

"Nagato, help her! Restore her like the last time!" I begged in the face of her inaction.

"I can't." She responded. I froze.

"What you mean you can't?" Haruhi desperately asked.

"The dimensional variant of this interface injected a program of data dissolution written in an unknown code to us... it's erasing the data contained in Asakura Ryoko's interface... time is needed to run a diagnosis and create an antidote program..."

"How long will it take you to run that diagnosis?" I asked feeling that it wasn't as severe then...

"From eight to twenty-four hours..."

"How long will it take for the dissolution program to take effect on Asakura?" Haruhi asked... she didn't seem very optimistic. Nagato took time to respond.

"Thirty-five seconds." Asakura responded with a trembling voice...

It's a joke, right...?

"It's not that bad... I accomplished my objective... to protect you both and protect Nagato..." She dedicated a look full of appreciation to our inexpressive alien. "Thank you for everything, Nagato... I had a lot of fun with all of you... and this won't be in vain, I know you will find the way to overcome every obstacle and that you will come out victorious at the end. Please, take care of them..." She indicated talking about Haruhi and I. "The potential that can save this world is in them... take a lot of care of them... I count you will watch over them?"

Nagato immediately assented... she caressed Asakura's face like she had never done with anybody else, never before... I felt a horrible knot in my throat... Asakura had been perhaps the only person Nagato could consider to be family... it must be horrifying what she's feeling right now.

"Then everything is fine..." Asakura continued... "Enjoy the time you have together... I'm very lucky and I feel very happy having shared part of this time with you..." She closed her eyes and gifted us that beautiful tulip smile that nobody could imitate. " _Jaa ne!"_

She expired in Nagato's arms. A pair of seconds after, her body turned into a very fine white dust that passed through her fingers and was dragged with the January's winds. I never felt so empty... the shock was such that I stood like an idiot for an instant and what we just went through seemed to me extremely confusing, as if we had gone through it many years ago.

Time never went by as out of phase as today did for me... I still can't understand... I can't even coordinate the thoughts that I try to express, I will do my best effort to describe my situation... damn it, I'm so confused... I don't know how long has it been since today's nightmare ended, but it must've been a considerable lapse... I know because several police cars and ambulances make their emergency sounds play at the distance... It will take them some more minutes to arrive... I can see a very well-known black vehicle getting close to us... it still making a turn to brake and Koizumi is already getting off the copilot's side... he runs towards us as if in slow motion, his face carries a mixture between fair and guilt. At some meters from us, to my right there are the crystal walls of a bank's branch office, in which I can see our reflections... Haruhi and I walk, also with that strange slow motion effect, I'm helping her walk... we are both covered in dust, without a doubt from the debris from the destroyed and partially set on fire street behind us... part of our faces and clothes are covered with blood, warm still... by the way... how many people have ended wounded...? Jesus, Mohammed, Buda or whoever your name is... I beg you... I hope nobody else has died... nobody else...? No, no, no... shit! NO! Turning my head, I saw Nagato walking behind us, for the very first time since I've known her, dejected.

Koizumi caught up with us and immediately asked about our physical integrity. It was Haruhi who responded that we were okay.

"I'm so sorry!" The esper desperately said, truly feeling bad. He got closer to Nagato and asked her if she was okay. She assented. "Where's Asakura?" He asked finally. Nagato stopped walking, but didn't respond.

Koizumi turned towards me searching for a response. I, not knowing what to say, limited myself to negate with my head. That was the confirmation. Seeing me, Nagato started to walk again. Thick tears began to fall down Haruhi's cheeks and she immediately threw herself to Nagato hugging her by the neck while both walked towards the black taxi. Koizumi stayed next to me for another moment, in silence. Then he gestured me pointing with his face at something on the ground. I turned towards the object in question... the combat knife of Asakura. Without being too sure what purpose it will have for me, I took it and I put it away in between my clothes to then direct myself towards the vehicle that would take us back home.

* * *

The night had fallen upon us and Haruhi and I had taken a bath and changed clothes. Although at the beginning reluctant, Nagato imitated us a little after. The battalion had left already, everybody was aware of the loss that we suffered and nobody had dinner that day as a sign of mourning.

Only original members of the brigade were now in the dining room. Haruhi seemed absent at the head of the table. At her right it was me, with no mood to do anything. Koizumi's smile seemed to have been forgotten in a different shirt and he's still had that guilt gesture on his face. Asahina irremediably cried. Nagato not only was inexpressive... distant.

As she usually does, Nagato simply got up and started to walk towards the door. We all got up upon seeing her and without a doubt, Koizumi and Asahina would also leave.

"Nagato." I called before she reached the door. "Asakura wanted you to have this." I indicated to her giving her the paper bag she had left this afternoon. Nagato grabbed it and took its contents out.

It was a picture of both, according to what Haruhi told me, Asakura convinced Nagato to take a set of instant pictures in a booth... she picked the best one and got it amplified and framed. It would be to make Nagato's apartment livelier. She looked at it and some seconds later she put it back into the bag. She turned around and opened the door to leave.

"Nagato..." I called her a last time before she went through the door. She stopped without facing me. "What Asakura did is the most courageous action I've ever seen... you must be very proud of her."

She stayed a moment without saying anything.

"I am." She finally responded and left closing the door behind her.

 **Chapter 8.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** I don't really know what to say about this one chapter. It came from inside of my stomach with the only intend of hurt anyone to read it, me included. I won't tell anything else, but I hope you have anything to share with us. Until the next chapter.

 **Translator's Notes:** Sniff... sniff... who else cried with this chapter? That was sad. I've read this chapter before I still find it very sad today. I've noticed that Asakura is a popular character among some fans, despite her little role and despite the fact she isn't really a good girl. Haha. I can see where the appeal for her character comes from. She's got a very likeable personality and she is very pretty. Well, I was absolutely surprised the first time I read this story seeing what pepsipez did with her character. He managed to give us a good Asakura and I just don't think anybody could do such a great job as he has done with all the characters. Anyway, I told you there was going to be some action from now on and I wasn't lying. Lots of action in this chapter and there's still so much more to come. Hope you're enjoying it!

Just so you guys know, I will be on vacation next week so I might not have much time to work on the next chapter but I will try. I apologize in advance if I don't have it ready next week. I don't like making you guys wait. Talk to you all next time!


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

"What happened yesterday afternoon is lamentable." Haruhi began standing at the headboard of the enormous dining table before Friday's breakfast. "Not only we lost one of our strongest allies, we also lost the same person we owe that our world hadn't disappeared before. Perhaps many of you feel fear from this fact, and I wouldn't blame you. I even took longer than five minutes observing my toothbrush without knowing what to do with it. It was precisely due to this type of situations that I decided to keep my family out of it. If any of you feel this is too much and you don't want to know anything else, I won't reproach you and I won't allow anyone else to do it either. You are free to leave the SOS Battalion." Haruhi waited for a response, or someone to get up and leave, but that didn't happen.

It's funny to think that once I waited for that option to be offered to me. When Haruhi dragged us to her stupid adventures, in more than one occasion I felt the urge to desert and send everything to hell. I didn't feel like that today. She turned towards me and with a smile free of pretensions she confirmed my place and that of everyone in the group. By the way, Nagato, Koizumi and Asahina missed school and convmersed with us.

"Thank you everyone." She then continued. "I want you to see Asakura's sacrifice not as a warning of the danger we are facing, but as a message of courage and hope. And in honor to her courage, I want us all to be happy... I know it might sound like a silly thing, but knowing Asakura in the short amount of time I became acquainted with her, I am sure it would be the best way to honor her... fortunately... and I say fortunately since I despise funerals, we do not have a body to bury... but we have excellent memories and a legacy... so instead of asking you for a moment of silence for her, I ask you to give her a moment of clapping..."

Every TFEI terminal, esper from either agency, time travelers of whatever faction, we all stood up and we did it. It was the most solemn act I'd attended so far. Once the moment passed, we had a little quieter breakfast than other days, but not as sad as I had thought.

* * *

The activities were the same as the previous days, although many of us felt nostalgia since the rejoice Asakura imprinted into our working days was missing. It was until almost noon the first event worth mentioning occurred. Haruhi, Kimidori, Nagato and I were called into the study by Tachibana.

"Is there someone here that would like to share information with us?" The nice esper announced while we followed her.

When arriving at the ample study of the house, I was left a little confused. It seemed no one was inside.

"She's another friend of your little girlfriend, no?" Haruhi asked with irony looking at something next to the fine mahogany desk.

Only then I noticed the almost invisible presence of that girl with long and abundant black hair and white skin like paper, sheathed in the uniform of Kouyouen Academy. She didn't even look like she was breathing while she shot draggers at us.

"I suppose you remember Kuyoh Suou." Tachibana commented standing next to her.

"She's hard to forget." I said without trying to sound hurtful.

"She arrived here yesterday afternoon. Apparently, she confronted Nagato-Ni some hours before she attacked you."

Amazing. Not for the fact that they ran into each other first, but for the fact that she came out alive.

"..." The EMCC alien looked at me directly with those eyes carved with the darkest obsidian. She then walked like a ghost, without even moving her clothes or her hair and deposited a piece of paper in my hand. "You-need-information-important-retranslate-codes."

Haruhi immediately took the paper from my hand ignoring the unintelligibly babbling of the alien. In a blinking, her arm was left pressed by the hand of Suou. Haruhi only needed to look at her with intensity for Suou to desist and let her go. Despite her apparent lack of understanding of humans and their customs, she knew not to make the battalion leader angry.

"What is this?" I asked directed to Tachibana fearing another peroration without any sense from Suou.

"I'm not very sure. According to what the people at my Agency interpreted, they're codes that could be understood by EID terminals... a first common language between both instances."

Surely, understanding better the words of the esper than me, Haruhi extended the paper to Kimidori. When she got it, she passed the tip of her index finger over the curious print on it, which distantly reminded me of the Sanskrit script. She literally was left speechless. Close to thirty seconds went by in absolute silence.

"Is there something going on?" I asked the old assistant of the student council. Nagato is the one that answered me:

"The information contained in the document has a superior size than four Exabytes. Estimated time remaining to send, interpretation and devolution of the IED data is one hundred eighty seconds."

"Can you imagine what would we do with that bandwidth?" Haruhi asked me jocular. I looked at her with a stupid gesture without understanding her joke. "Four Exabytes in three and a half minutes! That's half the traffic of the Internet in a year!"

"And how do you know that? No, no, better yet... how the hell do you pretend me to know that?"

"You should read Wikipedia more often."

"You should really get a life."

"You're boring."

"You're crazy."

Tachibana, who couldn't help but to softly smile about our pantomime had to apologize. Haruhi and I turned to opposite sides making each a face.

"Information is processed." Kimidori said a little after recovering her gentle expression. "There are codes that correspond to different protocols used by Nagato-Ni. They will be greatly helpful for creating countermeasures."

I could even interpret those words and a doubt hit me at that moment. That means that...

"Is there an antidote program for the erasing of data of another interface?" Haruhi asked one step ahead of my reasoning.

"There is." Kimidori responded.

Nagato didn't change her expression, but I know what must be going through her head just now... if Suou would've arrived a little earlier, we would've had a chance to save her. If Nagato, Kimidori or the own EID would've had a capacity of analysis like the Sky Canopy's, Asakura wouldn't have died. As soon as the information was shared, Suou made way to the door of the study with that disturbing mechanical walk. She stood face to face with Nagato. I had seen these two in a similar scene before, however, this time there was no confrontation. They looked at each other, but unlike last time, there was no hostility. Nagato moved out of her way and Suou left the stance. Tachibana informed us then that Suou and the EMCC would stay away from the conflict, since it didn't interfere with their plans.

* * *

Although it felt a little hard at times, I tried to keep high spirits for the rest of the day. At around three in the afternoon I went into the bedroom for a motive I can't remember, I forgot when I got there... My God! This room is a disaster! The bed hadn't been made in days and there were dirty plates on the night stands, courtesy of the nocturnal lootings perpetrated by Haruhi, the overflown trash can and there were Haruhi's and my clothes tossed all over the place. I remembered then that just that morning I had some problems to find clean clothes to wear... the person who with I share this room must surely be going through a similar problem. My room at my parent's house never looked so dirty, even when I was very careless. Concerned, I opened the closet on the left side of the room and I found a very big wicker basket. But she will pay for this... if I ask her to come help me fix this vortex of entropy, she will kick me so hard that I will arrive at the dimension where our opponents come from.

An hour later, even if the bedroom wasn't immaculate, it had a much better state. The bed was made and the embrasures of the big window allowed the wintery wind to softly refresh the place. I had already made a first trip downstairs, taking with me every dirty dish and crock to the kitchen, just as with the accumulated trash; in this second and last trip I'd take the dirty clothes, contained now in the big basket, to the laundry room in the basement. During the gathering of such clothes, I discovered one of the best kept secrets of our feared battalion leader, her scar on a shape of a thunderbolt, her unique ring, her "come if you want to live": a pair of additional yellow hairbands. Smiling in the face of the discovery I made my way towards the basement remembering the Haruhi of almost two years ago, with that perfect pony tail... I hope to see her like that one day.

In my previous experience with this type of tasks, the only thing I remembered was to separate the laundry into whites and colors... I did such separation and I indiscriminately threw my and Haruhi's clothes into the enormous washer not yet used before. Said apparatus was disposed on the ample laundry room on the wall opposite to the access stairs and it was perpendicular to a dryer just as new and big. In the space left between them, there were various types of laundry detergents, bleaches and softeners disposed on a small shelve, two people would fit without an issue... who would imagine the type of scene that would develop there...

"What are you doing?" Haruhi asked with her voice of fastidious kindergarten girl, coming suddenly in.

"I'm planting a tree... What do you imagine I could be doing in a laundry room?"

"There's no need to be rude... wait a moment..." She suspiciously looked at the basket, now at half of its capacity. "Are you also washing my clothes?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Is that something wrong?"

"Y-You should've asked me before!" She complained walking towards me and pointing at me with her index. "Of course there's something wrong! My underwear is also there!"

"And after all this time, is that truly relevant?"

"Of course it's relevant... I don't know how much of a pervert you are..." She said cornering me into the small space of the detergents. "I don't know what you could've done with my clothes before putting them into the washer..."

Saying that last thing, she crossed her arms and turned her back on me. I noticed that her earlobes had tinged scarlet. What is she thinking about? That I'm so kind of sick person that sniffs female underwear...? She needs to stop watching those shows or reading that kind of manga...

"I would never do something like that..." I added after arguing the last thing I thought... seeing her feeling ashamed in a situation like this brought torturous memories and ideas to my mind... "I mean... why would I do that if I can do something better?" I completed.

For once I wanted to know how my brigade commander sees the world. I would do it imitating one of her favorite techniques: taking advantage of a situation in which she was at a disadvantage and doing what was in my mind without even reflecting about it... it's strangely exciting...

"What are you doing?" She asked confused noticing that I passed my hands by her waist. I didn't respond... "Stop right now or I will scream..." She said in a low voice. Of course she won't do it... "Enough... how dare you attack your commander in this way?" She asked in a whisper when I started to kiss her neck and her nape while she supported her hands on the functioning washer.

"What's wrong? Does my auto proclaimed commander fear being caught?" I asked caressing her abdomen. "The possibility of someone coming down here at this moment is one in one hundred... plus... isn't you who told me that doing this type of things secretly and risking being caught is more fun...? Didn't you mean it?"

"Idiot..." she mumbled lightly turning her face towards me... of course she meant it... no one means more what she says when talking about adventures...

For some minutes, she simply allowed me to do what I wanted without opening her eyes, time I took advantage of by caressing her and continuing kissing her neck, nape and shoulders. I think that I've only seen her wearing pants for the physical education class. No matter the weather or situation, Haruhi always wears short skirts or shorts... today wasn't the exception. She wore a pretty pleated white skirt, matched with a spaghetti strap of the same color, with a generous cleavage on the back... which also gave an idea... and I would get it until the last consequences.

"No...! Wait!" She said when she felt my hands caressing those beautiful thighs she's got and going up under her skirt. "Not here... let's go up to the bedroom..."

"Are you crazy...? I just finished cleaning it..." I ridiculed to her ear, feeling her tremble at the contact of my breath with her auricular lobe.

"How can you be so stupid...?"

With tenderness, I tangled my fingers in the straps of her panties... cotton... if she knew how much I like this material, I think she'd stop using it... and just when I was managing to discover a way to get rid of them, one out of a hundred possibility showed up...

"Suzumiya?" Asahina's small voice was heard, while her steps rumbled coming down the stairs towards where we were.

"Ah...! Eh... Yeah...?" Haruhi asked coming out of her lethargic state without knowing what to do.

I, equally surprised, reacted instinctively... I bent down behind Haruhi, the washers and the wicker basket would hide me for a while.

"Ms. Mori told me she saw you coming down here..." The time traveler said with innocence getting to the bottom of the stairs. "...I haven't seen Kyon anywhere and his training must begin now... have you seen him?"

It's true... I was going to start to think on a good excuse, in the meantime, Haruhi inclined herself over the washer faking trying to remember... I then realized my hands were tied... and it's not a euphemism. Looking at the floor, my hands were on Haruhi's feet... next to her underwear... I have no words to describe the beauty of the panorama left in front of my eyes as soon as I raised my gaze... I will make her go through a difficult situation... It will be my revenge for more than two years of abuse...

With extreme caution, I freed my hand and I started to raise them little by little, being especially careful to caress every millimeter of her legs... I could feel a light tremble on them.

"I haven't seen him either..." She lied in the meantime.

"Really? Then perhaps you guys missed each other on the way... because Mori told me he had come down here before to do laundry..."

While this part of the conversation developed, I lifted the pretty white skirt of my commander...

On your mark…

"Ah, that's right!" Haruhi then said, with an anxious voice not very common in her. "He asked me..." She was left speechless for an instant.

Get set…

"Yes...?" Asahina asked, intrigued.

"To wait for the laundry!" She responded barely being able to modulate her voice...

Go!

With gentleness, I buried my face feeling the softness and firmness of her skin, searching for her sex... as soon as I got there, I began a routine that I had done with her before in a different position. While I was doing this, my right hand went up in between her legs, allowing me to caress her vulva in the frontal part... my Gosh, this sounds very dirty... but it was very, very exciting.

Haruhi could barely contain a scream, product primordially of the surprise... but also from the enjoyment...

"Are you okay?" Asahina asked... I suppose that something in Haruhi's face must've changed.

"Y-yeah... everything's okay..."

"Oh... and then... do you know where Kyon went?"

"I think he was going to buy something at some convenience store in the neighborhood... Damn it!" That last exclamation was my fault... in these last weeks I had known more than one sensitive spot of her anatomy... suffer... suffer!

"I see... I hope he doesn't take long... Fujiwara doesn't like tardiness."

"No... Ddd!... don't worry... he'll be there on time... I'll send him there as soon as he finishes..."

"He finishes?"

"Gets back! I meant, as soon as he gets back... Damn it!" She exclaimed once more... again because of me... my thumb was now stimulating her from the inside... I think she was enjoying it... due to the humidity of her core, I can affirm she was.

"Well... thanks then..." There was a slight silence, but I didn't hear the steps of Asahina on the stairs. An instant after she talked again. "Are you truly okay?" she asked with sincere worry.

"Yeah, yeah... everything's okay... you can go back upstairs..."

"Because if you need to talk about anything..."

"Thank you, but I'm very well... God!"

"Eh... okay... I'll see you at lunch time..."

I heard our battalion mascot go upstairs and Haruhi waited some seconds before talking.

"You're a fucking crazy moron!" She blurted out with violence... while throwing her hips against my face and grabbing the hand that was caressing her, to modulate my action. For almost ten more minutes I could hear her agitated respiration while I put a lot of effort on my best cunnilingus to date... My tongue's frenulum hurt, but with joy I noticed that she could barely contain her moans...

At the end, she separated from me only to turn around, and supported by the washer she recaptured me, lifting her right leg over my shoulder, making me finish what I had started. I tasted her long and intense orgasm, which surely was more a product of the situation rather than the feeling...

"You are daring... a harasser... You deserve the death penalty!" She told me a moment later, recovering her breath and the missing clothing item, while fixing her clothes and hair... she looked agitated, anxious and surprised... but without a doubt, happy. "You must go to your training..."

"I'm going right away." I responded with a certain difficulty to talk... well, I truly hurt my frenulum... even so, with gentleness I took the cheeks of my crazy leader and I kissed her lips, a small and short kiss.

"Idiot." She limited herself to say taking her eyes away from mine. I smiled and I walked to the stairs on my way to the dojo. "But I swear you'll pay for this!" I heard hear threaten me when I left the basement.

* * *

The afternoon practice went as usual... however, there was a displeasure that had increased since morning and it was by now palpable. The confrontation with the SOS-Ni Brigade was getting closer... I wonder how it will develop... I don't ask for much, only not to by surprise. Asahina (small) was trained in the art of feeling spatial-temporal ruptures provoked by the functioning of the TPDD. It reminded me of Luke Skywalker having her eyes covered while trying to guess where Fujiwara would appear only trusting her instincts. I, more than trained by Fujiwara, was used as a boxing bag.

At around five in the afternoon, my discomfort had transformed into a slight depression... besides the lamentable event on Thursday, my confusion about the situation of Haruhi and I caused havoc to my emotional state, on the other hand, there was the sentence that Haruhi and I auto imposed on ourselves... tomorrow, Saturday, at two in the afternoon was the deadline to revert the change of memories of our families... if the situation didn't resolve by tomorrow before said time, we could forget our pasts and identities...

"Is there something wrong?" Asahina (small) asked me while extending a towel to clean my sweat to me at the end of practice at the bathroom door, taking me out of those thoughts.

"No... don't worry." I didn't see her during my training, she surely had other diligences. "Thank you for looking for me before my training began, Haruhi told me."

"Eh...? Ah...! It's nothing!" She responded... she looked a little confused, but who isn't these days? "By the way... do you have something to do later?"

"Not much... why?" I answered lightly intrigued.

"I'd like to talk to you for a little bit... what about the dojo, at eight is that okay?"

"Yeah... I'll be there." I said smiling. How does this young woman cheer someone up who's about to have an emotional collapse like me? I only hope it's nothing that's affecting her.

* * *

To avoid any unexpected event, I let Koizumi know that I'd take a walk around the Agora park, at around some one hundred meters from the house. He confirmed with me, just the way I expected, that at a prudent distance I'd have surveillance. I didn't change my training clothes... in some way, being sweaty would make it easier to blend in with the people that tend to exercise at said park. The weather started to improve, in a few days February would be here, given the first steps into my favorite season: Spring. Like this, infected by the spirit of the real homemade athletes who occupied the field, I decided to jog a little... some wore headphones, others wore skates or rode a bike... a few ran with their dogs. I didn't need any of those distractions... I was enclosed in my own world while I went over each of the problems that I had now... perhaps I was a little blocked during the day, only until now I'm being conscious of the truly dimension of what happened yesterday... I mean... Asakura died... according to what she told us, she couldn't go back to her original dimension, because it didn't exist anymore... then, what happened to her? Her body disintegrated... her spirit... transcended...? I hope so... but independently of that... what would happen if any other member of the battalion dies? Or any member of the brigade...? I'm at risk of dying myself... Haruhi... dead... the simple idea provoked me retching and I closed my eyes without stopping.

An impact brought me back to reality, getting away from such disagreeable ideas... I had accidently jumped into another person who walked and I had knocked her down. Instinctively, I advanced my hand and I managed to catch her before she fell to the ground.

"I'm really sorry! I got distracted, it was my fault..." I apologized while I helped her get up.

"Don't worry, it happens to me often, I constantly run into people because I get into my thoughts." The person said spiritedly... a girl with an overflowing energy who was already laughing uproariously about our accident. Seeing a known face gave some tranquility to my agitated heart. Tsuruya.

"I'm really sorry." I apologized once more and I did a reverence... I prepared to continue my way, after all, Tsuruya didn't recognize me... she would know Asahina, but she wouldn't have any memories of me.

"Wait!" She said before I could move. She rummaged into one of her sweatshirt's pockets and she extended a peach juice can to me. "I think you need it more than me."

"Oh, no thank you..." I said embarrassed... "... I couldn't take it."

"You reject me after you almost kill me?" That's a little exaggerated. She looked at me with those acute eyes full of sagacity that remind me of Haruhi. "You look very worried for a boy your age. Come on, take it!"

"Okay... but I'll do it if you allow me to also invite you one."

"Oh...! A fast and bold boy! If the guys were more like you, they would save themselves a lot of complexes." She responded and added a sounding burst of laughter to later accept my proposition.

My old senior was one of those people that can easily gain your trust. She's happy and despite being beautiful, she isn't selective with her friends. That would explain why she accedes to drink juice on a bench with a perfect stranger, although I don't think she is like this with every stranger that crosses her path, rather, she uses her surely very reliable intuition, the same as Haruhi.

"And well, boy, what do you want to talk about?" She asked some seconds after we sat down.

"How do you know I have a preoccupation? Perhaps it's my technique to get close to girls."

"Of course not... your eyes are very transparent, I bet your problem is precisely because of a girl, right?" Well, she does have a good eye... at the end, it was possible that I couldn't recover my previous life... so I decided to talk to her, it would definitely be one of the friendships that I'd like to establish again.

"You promise you won't say anything?"

"For the life of my ancestors!" I couldn't help not to smile in the face of her infantile and sincere conviction.

"Okay... then it's like this..."

I told her about my situation with Haruhi without involving her name... although it wouldn't have mattered, she didn't have any memories of her either. I told her on a superficial way everything we had gone through in the time we've known each other, the abrupt move and separation from our families and my confusion about my own ideas and feelings about her. This, of course, was the minor of my problems, but it would be something I could talk to someone else, without overwhelming her with apocalyptical ideas.

"You know something, guy?" She said after listening to all my story. "I can't help you!" She soundly laughed. "However, I think that your problem isn't so grave after all. It's about thinking some minutes on each of the things you feel. You're attracted to the girl, despite not being the model you look for... you don't like her personality, because it's the opposite of yours, you are constantly fighting... and even then... you don't get away from her... you also tell me that you're going through a crisis that forced you both to leave your homes... so, solve that crisis and think if that's really the cause to sharing a roof with her... if that's the case, you could get away and forget her, if not... well, you must discover that yourself."

Tsuruya smiled, but she didn't flaunt her sonorous laugh... she was really advising me, with all the seriousness she could imprint. My problem wasn't solved, but I felt very relieved sharing it with someone else.

"Thanks a lot for listening to me... and for the juice." I said standing up and doing a reverence to my improvised confident.

"It's nothing! If you tend to run around here, perhaps we can talk in another occasion." She said also standing up while putting her left hand behand her nape.

"That'd be great." I responded. "See you later, then." I said raising my hand and beginning to walk home.

"My name is Tsuruya!" She yelled some meters away from me. "And don't use _Keigo_ with me or I'll get mad!"

"Okay!" I responded with a yell as well. "Call me Kyon!"

"What a weird name...! See you later!"

* * *

With my more appeased soul, I went back home. There were a few minutes left before eight at night, time in which Asahina had scheduled to meet me, and a good part of the battalion had already left, so I walked towards the kitchen to have a snack. Asahina showed up there and started to make some tea after politely greeting me.

"Let me change my clothes, I'll catch up with you there." I told her and I got up from the kitchen counter.

"Eh...? Okay..." She responded, confused... I suppose it's natural, to avoid suspicion if someone else heard us talking.

The brigade's guardian angel had already put on a pretty set, that despite being wintery, showed up part of her skin in a discrete cleavage. There's no way I'd go see her with my clothes full of sweat.

It took me only some minutes to go down to the dojo after washing my face and changing my clothes. The night had already fallen and when I went into the enclosure, there was barely a faint light. Asahina was already there.

"Good evening..." She said with timidity with her back towards me... although the greeting seemed very formal for the occasion, without even considering that we had seen each other in the kitchen, I responded in the same way.

"Good evening... is there something going on?"

"Yes... I needed to talk to you about something important..." She responded still without turning to see me. I decided the best thing would be to catch her at the center of the room. "No! Don't turn the light on, please..." She said feeling I walked towards the switches. "Umm... could you get a little closer?"

"Sure..." I did as she indicated until I was only a pair of steps from her back. She finally turned around, but she didn't look at me, her eyes were nailed to the ground and it seemed she had a big preoccupation. Distressed, I noticed she was about to cry. "Are you okay, Asahina? What happened?"

"I have to talk to you... you must know..." I don't like the direction this conversation is taking... "You must know about me..." No, no, please, stop... "About my feelings... for you..."

I froze up. After hearing her say this last sentence, despite the darkness, I could notice a marked blush on her face. Some seconds later, she finally dared to look at my face... she threw herself over me with open arms... I didn't know what to do, I stood still.

"A-Asahina... wait... no... we can't... I don't..."

A terrible dizziness shook me then while feeling how my body lost its sense of equilibrium and my center of gravity disappeared. The feeling barely lasted some seconds, but it was enough to provoke me some incipient nauseas. When opening my eyes again, I wasn't in the dojo any longer... in fact, it was daylight, I calculated it was a little after noon given the light that came through the window where we were... Asahina was still pinned to my chest while I was trying to locate where I was. As I could, I delicately separated her from me and I began to explore the place...

It was a room... the architecture suggested it was modern... perhaps from the seventies, but terrible neglect... abandoned, better said, the wall paint was falling off, the ceiling was semi demolished and it had dropped many pieces of lime on the ground. While walking I could hear the creak from the floor under my feet while a strong humidity smell filled my lungs. I walked towards the window, and I could see we were at a considerable height inside a building, perhaps some four or five floors up. The window didn't have anything more than crystal chips in the frame. Outside one could hear the birds chirping and only that. It was very cold, maybe as much as in my city in the winter mornings... we must be at three or four degrees despite the sun being close to the zenith. The most worrying part is that the small rural city in which I am doesn't harbor a soul. From the window, I could perfectly observe an old amusement park with an enormous Ferris wheel at the center, it looks just as abandoned as the same building we are in. The vegetation grows indiscriminately along the streets, invading the buildings and the public spaces... this city must have decades of being abandoned... searching for some reference of my location, as much as geographic as temporal, I found a sign at the distance... the background was a fading blue and red, it had the emblematic symbol of the crossed sickle and hammer and a message I did not understand... I can't read Cyrillic… Cyrillic?

"When and where are we?" I dared finally asked. Asahina had already taken a seat on the bed.

"It's your time... in fact, it's the same moment in which we left the dojo. We are in Ukraine, in the _Polissya_ hotel, the main hotel of this city."

"And what city is this?"

"It's called Pripyat. It's been abandoned for more than twenty years."

The name of the city sounds familiar... doing a small remembrance diffused memories of our history class come to mind... Pripyat is at the north of Kiev, capital of Ukraine and since before I was born it was already a ghost town... part of the disappeared USSR... the cold war... nuclear contamination...

"We are close to Chernobyl!" I resumed after some seconds facing Asahina again.

"That's not important." She said taking me by surprise and capturing me again by the neck to drag me to bed. "There's something else you must know... or do."

Wearing surely her enhancers, she easily towed me towards the bed, laying me down on it and immediately jumping on me... the scene could result very erotic if it wasn't because I'm terrified... Asahina wouldn't behave like this, ever... she's completely out of herself... I was just reasoning that when I saw her close her eyes and tried to kiss me.

"We shouldn't be doing this... we must go back home." I said grabbing the time traveler by her shoulders and firmly talking. Petrified I saw that her eyes were getting full of tears.

"Don't... don't you love me?" She asked with a tone of voice that would bow down the rudest of mean. "Am I not pretty enough for you...?" She said this last part lowering her tone, irradiating as much sensuality as nuclear contamination came out of the reactor some kilometers away from us. "Don't you want me?"

Unfortunately, your mind can play tricks with you. Only the suggestion was needed and the position in which we were to remember a previous situation I went through, but not with her... I imagined her... over me... the movement of those precious breasts while... ENOUGH! What the hell is this...? Wait a minute! I had already face a fake Asahina before... one that just the same way tried to seduce me in our trip to the mountains last winter... There's a way to discover the deceit! Without thinking much, with my right hand I grabbed Asahina's blouse collar and I pulled it down, marking her cleavage more and allowing me to see the beginning of her breasts... the proof of falsehood must be there...

"I thought you'd be gentler..." She told me even more flushed. I couldn't take my eyes away from her chest... a mole in the shape of a perfect star left me speechless... before I could recover from the shock, the lips of Asahina finally made contact with mine... I swear on everything that's good and decent I believe in that I tried to resist, but she had too much strength... I wouldn't be so surprised if that mole wasn't there, but if the beginning of her right breast has that birth mark, then... wait... wait, wait! Asahina's birth mark is on her left breast!

Mustering all my strength I grabbed the impostor by her shoulders and I took her off me, since by now she was literally trying to rape me.

"What's wrong...?" She asked vexed.

"I uncovered you…"

Her innocent expression, sensual and shameful vanished immediately after I said those words. It was replaced by a cynical smile that quickly revealed her identity. Asahina-Ni was seated on my lap, pressing with her core into my hips... it would be such a turn on if it wasn't because I'm at risk of dying...

"Stop resisting, darling..." She said trying to kiss me again. "...we both know..." she added noticing how I resisted while putting her palms on my shoulders. "...at the end, I will obtain what I want from you."

My lungs released all the air they contained as a result of the scream that I involuntarily left out. A combination between the feeling of a monstrous electrical discharge and being stabbed took over every millimeter of my skin. The pain was simply unimaginable... the few seconds she inflicted said punishment felt like a whole life. She did it a second time without letting me recover my breath and I shook violently on the bed, I felt at any moment I'd wet my pants.

"You... won't get... anything... from... me..." I said... I was surprised about my own willpower...

My memories were giving me vigor... even to resist such abominable torture... the yellow ribbon...

The pain stopped but my confusion increased... the yellow ribbon was only a memory, but for a moment I thought I saw it in front of me... only the blink of an eye before a hand pulled with violence the hair of Asahina-Ni and another hand prescribed a frightening punch on her cheek. I shook my head, trying to recover my lucidity after the pain and little by little I began to understand what was happening.

To my right, at some steps close to the window, was Asahina, ours, with a scared face... but it wasn't her who attacked Asahina-Ni... in front of me, was the dark brown hair of our brigade leader with her back on me, her legs were apart and her torso swelled at each deep and agitated respiration... rage bad contained, it's common on her... and I must admit she's enchanting, especially today. She gave the punch with her left hand, her right hand had a lock of light brown hair from the slider who was recovering from the hit.

"Defending your man? What a romantic idea!" Asahina made fun while standing up. Haruhi didn't respond. She wouldn't waste saliva in some vermin like that one and she's got all my support on that.

Irritated in the face of Haruhi's aplomb, she threw herself like a beast towards her, but she didn't reach her. Asahina materialized in between both intercepting her homonymous and they struggled until they reached the window, the old age and neglect of the construction made part of the well give in at the contact with the fight and both girls fell into the void. Haruhi and I ran to the limit of the demolished wall, but both girls had already disappeared avoiding a potentially mortal fall. Only an instant after we saw them reappeared in the frontal yard of the hotel. An indescribable feeling of pride swelled in my chest seeing our Asahina fighting one on one with the impostor, giving her a fight she'd would remember without a doubt.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked Haruhi while she loudly cheered our warrior.

"Mikuru felt the jump that bitch made along with you..." She looked at me with reproach...

"What's your problem? Didn't you see her? She almost raped me! You should be preoccupied on how to get rid of the deep emotional trauma she will surely leave!"

"This is serious! Stop being so stupid! LET'S GO, MIKURU! FINISH HER!"

A moment later, I yelled with the same level as Haruhi's watching both girls fight a little, to then vanish and appear in another place of the center of the abandoned city and retake the fighting dialog. However, things started to get bad... despite Asahina's skills, Asahina-Ni had greater experience in combat and started to submit the battalion's mascot... Haruhi increased the volume of her acclamations, to a lever I felt would leave her voiceless...

And despite that, the result didn't vary... every time the blows that landed on Asahina's body were more frequent, while her counterpart began to hit with greater confidence...

"Asahina, that's enough! Get away! Go get help!" I yelled so she could go home for some type of support.

"Ignore this idiot! You are way more than that imitator! YOU ARE WAY PRETTIER THAN HER!"

"Don't be stupid, they're the same..." I said in the face of Haruhi's affirmation. She looked at me like one looks at a small dog that furiously barks at you.

"Don't you want Mikuru to win?"

"Of course I do…"

"THEN ENCOURAGE HER, IMBECILE!"

I did as she indicated... but the scale continued without inclining to our side... once it was evident the superiority of Asahina-Ni, I decided to take a pole or whatever it was and go there to help Asahina. Haruhi anticipated my intentions and took my hand.

"Give her only a moment..." She told me... she didn't yell anymore, she simply watched in silence the fight... concentrating... but... in what?

"Haruhi... we must go there and help her..."

"Only one more moment..." She insisted without letting me go...

Something happened then... I couldn't exactly describe what it was, but Haruhi let out the air she had accumulated in her chest while she concentrated... I watched then the contenders... Asahina-Ni managed to disappear just in time... behind her, a pure concrete wall had two holes... it was melted... the holes were a perfect circle of one meter in diameters... the edges, still illuminated in orange, were melting little by little before cooling off and hardening again... what the hell was that?

Asahina, with authentic panic on her face observed the result of her only look... Asahina-Ni, at a reasonably distance tried to comprehend what was happening, almost as lost as me...

"That's it Mikuru!" Haruhi said with an overflowing excitement... "Use your secret weapon!" She didn't do it... it's impossible... "MIKURU BEAM!"

Asahina turned her head searching for Asahina-Ni, but on the way, she was melting every object what crossed her field of vision... Haruhi had again made that beam that almost killed us all last year a reality... she's taking control of her powers...

"Eeeeeh!" It was the small scream from Asahina understanding what was happening to later close her eyes.

Asahina-Ni, realizing her sudden disadvantage, decided to take advantage of the fear of her counterpart and materialized herself behind her to execute a decisive hit...

"Behind you, Asahina!" I yelled fearing the impostor was faster.

Fortunately, it wasn't like that. Asahina opened her eyes looking just towards the chest of Asahina-Ni. A demolishing amount of energy came out shooting from her yes making her head whiplashed back, Asahina-Ni received the impact directly on her torso, which threw her several dozens of meters back, until she impacted against one of the columns of the hotel lounge where we were, making it collapse. Asahina arrived in a blink and carefully took Asahina-Ni out, unconscious, from the debris. A little after, Haruhi and I joined them.

"That was incredible, Mikuru!" Haruhi radiantly exclaimed while hugging the winner. I congratulated her as well. "You can open your eyes now... if you don't want it to shoot, nothing will come out." She indicated to her as if she was an expert on beams that come out of your eyes. A little dubious, Asahina listened to her.

"What do we do with her?" Asahina asked after putting herself together.

My face darkened... Asahina seemed fearful and Haruhi had a weird expression on her face... I saw the fainted body of that perverse version of Asahina... the same that had tried to fool me and seduce me... the same that tortured Asahina and me... partner of that one that had assassinated a friend of all of us and that wouldn't hesitate to kill us... it was decided... I wouldn't let the opportunity go.

Asahina didn't bother to hide her fearful exclamation seeing me take out from between my clothes the survival knife that had been property of Asakura. Determined, I made way towards the dissipated body of the slider ready to finish her. Asahina completely lost the color on her face while shaking in fear. Haruhi didn't speak, she simply watched me... she knew what my intentions were, but she didn't move a finger to stop me, apparently leaving to my discretion the following action and therefore, backing me up. I kneeled next to the passed-out girl... I had never done something like this, and I hope I never need to do it again... I took a deep breath and raised the knife over my head.

"Please! Don't do it!" Asahina begged grabbing my executing wrist with her eyes overflown with tears.

"But she won't miss the chance to kill us... if we let her go from here..."

"I beg you...! You aren't an assassin..."

"That's true." Haruhi added delicately taking the knife from my hand. "We are better than that..."

I stood up and I reflected about what I was about to do. I suddenly felt ashamed... we will win this war... but we will do it right, in a different way, otherwise it wouldn't make sense what side wins. Asahina, already more calmed, touched the left ear of her counterpart and some seconds later a fine dust fell from said place.

"She doesn't have her TPDD anymore..." She informed once the maneuver was done.

"Let's go home then, Mikuru." Haruhi suggested taking our hands.

* * *

If you think the problems ended that day with the defeat of Asahina-Ni, you are mistaken. Once home, which must've been empty, we found a good part of the battalion in great activity and several of them laid down on the dojo... getting medical attention... after the initial disconcert, I searched for a known face that could give me the details.

Haruhi, Asahina and I went then until the end of the dojo, where Tachibana finished putting a gaze on the forehead of Koizumi. Nagato joined us on the way there.

"What happened here?" I asked the esper after confirming he wasn't gravely hurt.

"We got a visit from Koizumi-Ni... we conversed a little and he left some minutes ago." Koizumi said smiling... given his state, it seemed he hadn't come out victorious this time.

"No one..." Haruhi didn't dare finish her question.

"We are all alive and without grave wounds." Koizumi resolved giving Haruhi back tranquility. "But they left this for you all..."

He extended a little envelope to me. I stretched out my hand to the esper so he could incorporate and when the five of us were together I opened the envelope.

 _You have been the most fun versions of ourselves that I've run into, so let's end this in the most exciting way... let's get together on Sunday, we will be waiting for you to have a fight between both brigades... as you obviously are at a disadvantage, you can take all the support you need. Tomorrow afternoon, one of us will give the location and time of the fight. The winner takes everything._

 _I anxiously wait for the encounter... I guarantee you it will be a lot of fun._

 _Haruhi Suzumiya._

At least one wish came true... we won't be taken by surprise.

 **Chapter 9.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author notes:** I'm a normal guy with modest life style. I put that as a comment because of the erotic resource I used on this chapter, I don't know if I were too far with it, so I should be great that you tell me if I exceeded. I really hope you are enjoying the story and I'll be waiting for your comments. See ya next update!

 **Translator Notes:** Uff, a lot of things happened, didn't they? Who thought Kyon was going to give into Mikuru? I wonder how many times he dreamed about this moment and then it happens and he turns it down. Haha. Good for Kyon, I cannot imagine getting killed while getting it on. Lol And we finally got to hear from evil Haruhi! She sounds like a lot of fun. Haha. The action was great during this chapter. Pepsipez doesn't disappoint! I'm so excited about what's coming next, I'm sure you are too J I'll try to have the next chapter out quick. See you guys next time!


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

I had a dream. It was such an incredible and curious dream as well as long. That is particularly rare in me, since I seldom remember them, but it was something like this: we were still students of North High School, and all the brigade members were like elementary children. We went through a lot of nonsensical adventures like always, but we reached outlandish and unreal levels. Amongst the most outstanding one, it was Nagato becoming something like an otaku from eroge videogames, she had a rivalry with Asahina for costumes and cosplay, plus at home, she had a very small version of Asakura, whom I saw playing with a little dog made with a green balloon, named Mr. Kimidori. That last part seemed particularly ghoulish... if you've ever dreamed about dead people, you know what I'm talking about. The club girls along with Tsuruya were also there, reunited at Nagato's place, making chocolates for Valentine's Day. Thinking about receiving a present from these girls makes me anxious with anticipation like a kid (believer) waiting for the arrival of Santa in Christmas. Talking about Tsuruya, in the dream she had a mortal rivalry with Ms. Mori and I was witness of a couple of fights between these two which could well rival the ones from an anime from the eighties that I never liked. It was a very fun dream... up until the last part.

There we were, still looking like children, and in front of us was the Brigade-Ni... they already looked like adults, the five of them wore black clothes. When it comes to us, Koizumi wore a traditional ceremonial suit of the type monks use in temples and he had a lot of paper talismans in his hands. Asahina was dressed in a short dress, a lot like the ones from the sixties, which seemed to be made of tin paper, with long boots and gloves just as shiny, in her head there was some huge on-ear headphones which I suppose would work as walkie-talkies, while she held a weapon in her hands that looked like a toy. Nagato floated at some centimeters from the floor on a diminutive UFO, in which she occupied the higher level, inside something like an enormous fish tank, she barely fit whole and her hands held onto the rudder at some millimeters from her body, the balloon little dog which I had seen before, floated next to her with something like a Jet-Pack. Then, there was Haruhi, whom wore a warrior suit distantly similar to the ones from the ancient Rome; like Nagato, she floated some centimeters above the ground thanks to four wings that came out of her back, she had a helmet, a shield, and a sword lit up in fire... I've seen that before... I think it was a Valkyrie.

I was in front of the group, I wore the school uniform and given the position I had, I was something like the representative of our brigade... of the first sacrifice, whichever you want to interpret it as. I felt confused and fearful not knowing what to do.

"But you already know what to do." The small Asakura said, seated on my shoulder with an infantile voice.

"No, I don't know... and it would be very helpful if you gave me a clue."

"Whatever it is the goal, without worrying about what team must win or lose, the tool which will determine this fight is in your hands." In the face of our fallen miniature partner's affirmation, I looked at my hands. In the right one, I wielded the survival knife. "And to reach either result... Haruhi Suzumiya's heart must be pierced."

* * *

I opened my eyes after that affirmation. It would be a little after midnight. My pillow wasn't really a pillow, but Haruhi's arm, whom was completely given into the sleep, while her brown hair softly bathed the pillows. Unlike other days, she seems to sleep very pleasurably, so much that her breathing can be barely heard... she looks lovely in that huge one-piece yellow pajamas, it even has a hat, and she looks more like a gigantic stuffed animal than a person sleeping. Sleep, like in other days, eludes me, so I dedicated some minutes to look at her face, always with a twisted frown, and after some minutes, without a doubt inside a dream, she raised her hand which directly landed on my cheek and squeezed it without force.

"Stupid..." That's all she says... she immediately caresses me, and her disoriented hand goes back to her side.

I finally got up and my steps took me to the kitchen. I was looking for something to drink and I found myself heating up water to prepare some coffee... that was the size of my uneasiness... there were just so many things that robbed my wheeze or appeared in my dreams in the shape of symbols hard to understand... perhaps talking for some minutes with Arakawa can help me with that. Back on the second floor, I sat down in the ample individual chair of the small balcony while I observed the nocturnal sky and the city lights, drinking an aromatic and very strong instant coffee. The clock informed me it was two in the morning... that means that in twelve hours I will lose my past forever. At least I could procure the safety of the people I care about... perhaps one day I can have the opportunity to get close to them again and to be something like a benefactor.

To pierce Haruhi's heart... I wish my subconscious weren't so capricious when choosing the terms it utilizes to communicate with me. However, it seems the message isn't so confusing... better said, it's obvious. For a moment, it really crossed my mind to pierce someone's heart... some hours ago I almost killed Asahina-Ni... but the voice of my conscious, helped by Asahina and Haruhi avoided I made something that I'd surely regret for the rest of my life. Nonetheless, next time there won't be any other option... it's either them or us, and for us I mean the whole world... I hope I can use the knife as a _horrocrux_ to save my life. Lastly, and crowning the chain of unfortunate and inevitable events, there is Haruhi. How to understand that I ignored it all and every one of the supposed steps a normal boy-girl relationship must have? I mean, I began to talk to her because it seemed the decent thing to do... I was immediately rejected and insulted. Without that being enough, I did it again, this time obtaining the trust of the most eccentric being in the planet... don't forget that I was insulted again... and from then on, I became the guinea pig, tests pilot and problem solver of this pseudo-club which I continued to attend for almost two years... Did I mention already that I was insulted? I wasn't even interested on her! But despite that, the responsible person to write my destiny, which as soon as I arrive to heaven I will get fired, persisted in getting me closer and closer to her. Wait, I'm forgetting something... of course, the day she gave me the Valentine's chocolate and when I returned it the following month, both made from scratch and all that... the long and agreeable walks home after school and the club... ah, of course... HOW COULD I FORGET SOMETHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED? And even with such a strange panorama for something I'd doubt call a "couple" ... I remain by her side. Beyond the strong responsibility I feel towards her and with the world, even if by morning they told me: "You're free, leave this injustice to someone else," there is no way I would leave her. I find it funny to think the same mystery of what or who Haruhi is, presents a degree of difficulty similar to the one of trying to know what she is to me... I'm not capable of answering that question yet, that from the end of the spring before last, chases me in dreams and determines my actions.

"I can't sleep..."

I turned to the balcony exit. It would stupid to ask who it is, considering that there are only two people in this house at this time of the night. Haruhi's face, eternally frowned is added to some tired eyes and some tousled hair. The enormous pajamas, which also procures her with footwear, is partially hidden under a blanket that falls from her shoulders. With naturalness, I offer her my coffee cup. She gets close to me and after taking my offer she signals me with her hand to make space on the chair for her. We both fit, a little tight, but we fit.

"Did you try to count sheep?"

"That's stupid."

"I had a dream a while ago..." I started to tell her, "... I tried to count sheep to sleep and you and Asahina arrived... she was a little sheep and you were a penguin, and you forced her to jump through a fire ring for me to count."

"It sounds like something I would do." She responds reflexive. It seems as just like me, she's got things in her mind... I consider I have an organized way to think, just like I can't imagine the whirlwind of reasoning that randomly fill her head. "Some days ago, I asked you what was happening between us... do you have an answer?"

"I was just thinking about that... what about you... any ideas?"

"Not really. As much as I try to find some logic to what has happened all this time, I don't know in what part I made a mistake."

"It's good to know I'm a mistake." I said with a certain reproaching tone.

"The worst I've ever made." She responded with irony. "However, ... don't you think there are times the mistakes become good things?"

"That's cheesy."

"Idiot... that's what I get for trying to give you a compliment."

"That's how we're alike... I don't need any compliments and you don't need any thanks." With that last part said, and making clear we were even, she seemed to get a little agitated.

She stopped looking at the stars in the firmament and concentrated on the cup, which still had some coffee.

"There's something... Should I tell you now...? I think it would clear some doubts about our... actual condition." She looked embarrassed... I don't blame her... it feels strange trying to explain what you feel for a person after so many things.

"No, you shouldn't say it now... I think it will be better we concentrate on what's priority at this moment... and that's Sunday's challenge." I took her chin with delicateness to turn her towards me. "If we come back fine and you keep thinking whatever it is in your mind now, I'd love to hear it then."

She accepted my words without knowing that formula was for me as well. I have to reflect and make very clear to myself what I think and feel for her.

We spent a little more than half an hour looking at the sky and talking about trivial things, something that we can only do when we are alone. As soon as there are people in this house, she becomes a dictator that rules with an iron fist.

"By the way..." She said after some minutes. "I was looking at some things online... they look interesting and I thought you'd want to know."

"Explain yourself." I know that look... it's relatively new, she just began to use it last December. The same look she had in our first closed space... a tinge of lust accompanies each word she says.

"Let's go inside, I'll give you the details there." I didn't resist... how could I? Every time she says, "I'll give you the details" it ends up being something enormously agreeable. "Plus... I told you this afternoon that I'd make you pay for what you did to me..."

* * *

In the morning, we continued with the practices which began to become routine in our small general quarters. Being Saturday, we were all present and we trained with greater keen, given the invitation made by no other than the counterpart of our battalion leader. This afternoon we'd be contacted to establish a place and time for the encounter on Sunday and which will surely determine our world's destiny... I always imagined the biblical apocalypse when she said those words... who would think the four horsemen would be a stubborn girl, a pseudo-magician, an alien and a girl from the future? Why don't I include myself in the list? Come on, at the end I will only be a victim.

"Make a little effort." Fujiwara said clearly bothered seeing me knocked down over the floor for the umpteenth time.

"You are a professional, you don't even have the delicateness to show me how I should defend myself."

"Again." He ordered taking a combat pose, he didn't even respond to my claims, and time after time we ended every fighting simulation with me knocked down and frustrated.

After an hour of wasting sweat trying to evolve in the body to body combat, he decided to give me a different type of training.

"I'm told you have a like for knives." He told me with indifference.

"It's not a like." I responded while I saw him getting close to his small bag. From it, he took a small military dagger out, very similar to the one Asakura had inherited to me.

"Do you want to learn to adequately use it?" He asked going on a guard pose with the knife risen. I didn't respond. For the first time since he arrived here, he had rightfully my attention. From my pocket, I took my knife out and I imitated the pose he had adopted as best as I could. "It'll be best you take your shirt off, the suit I'm wearing is puncture proof and you have over you the 'serpent skin'."

I did it that way. I believe I mentioned before that unless something interests me, I tend to be bad at learning new things. This interested me, and in barely two hours of training, I started to give my strict and rude trainer an authentic fight. His suit, made with materials I ignore, didn't show any marks from the times the blade of my weapon reached him, but I know they were several, in my case, the pants I wore ended with some cuts, and although he never managed to cut through my skin, several enlarged bruises showed the impact of his weapon on my body. Close to noon, and for the first time since I've met him, he smiled with conformity and not with that perverse grin I despised so much.

"Asahina, do you think you could prepare some tea?" I asked once Fujiwara announced a recess."

"Of course!" She responded happily and immediately exited the dojo. I stayed with Asahina (big) and Fujiwara. There was something that bothered me since some days ago and wanted to solve it at that moment.

"I don't like you!" I said going straight to the point and lightly taking by surprise the mocking bastard.

"Thank you?" He said in a hurtful tone. Asahina (big) observed us in silence.

"I know you don't like me, I also know just because the need exists, you are cooperating with us, and you will only do the bare needed to finish this situation without the world ending."

"You made your point... What do you want?"

"Entrust you a mission... being the only one here that doesn't like me, I think you'd be the most adequate to do the right thing." After saying these words, I noticed Asahina (big) dropped her gaze with sadness. Fujiwara sharpened his gaze.

"What mission?"

* * *

The day became forecast in the afternoon. Haruhi has been in session with Arakawa since breakfast ended and I haven't seen her since then. I can imagine the relationship of two events so apparently far. She's depressed. Since she became aware of her powers, according to what Koizumi had informed me, she stopped creating closed spaces and celestials, but her mood has a direct relationship with reality, therefore, it wouldn't be a surprise in the absolute that the rain that was about to start was a product of her emotional state. This time she is expressing the feelings of two people.

Overwhelmed by those feelings, I decided to walk around the neighborhood, and in some minutes I was at the agora center of the park, the one with so many good and today apparently far away memories. It took me by surprise to discover I wasn't the only one there. Haruhi had anticipated my move and she simply was standing at the center of the stage, with crossed arms. I couldn't see her expression having her back towards me.

"Yo!" I saluted without much eagerness.

"I hadn't heard that horrible informal greeting from you since a while ago!" She answered me softly.

I didn't say anything else, I just got closer to stand shoulder to shoulder with her. As soon as that happened, the rain arrived. The cold was intense for that time in the afternoon, and the rain droplets felt like diminutive needles on your skin. Like a condemned person that walks on the execution wall, I took my phone from my pocket to consult the time and confirm the inevitable.

13:59'30

According to Nagato's calculations, as soon as the time indicated two, the change we decided would be more convenient for our world would be irreversible. That one which included not being part of it or of the things and people we care about.

13:59'45

The rain suddenly became a small diluvium which in seconds soaked our clothes. It increased its intensity in a very short time and small bursts of wind whipped the trees tops... I shook at least once with one of said bursts.

14:00'00

Up until a second before, I wasn't able to feel all the nostalgia that suddenly congested my chest. I would never eat my mom's dishes, of would play videogames with dad... I wouldn't watch my sister grow, and of course, who would take care of Shamisen? In my recount, the cellphone got also soaked... perhaps it would stop working from now on... all my contacts were registered there. I suppose it wasn't relevant anymore, so it didn't bother me much the idea of losing it.

Some minutes after, the downpour ceded, leaving only a rain barely perceptible. The sky began to open provoking an agreeable fox rain, while the temperature increased a little, comforting us from the cold of some minutes ago. I turned towards Haruhi, now with her hair and face dripping while her hands rested on her sides. Her face, although sad, showed that strength that I've always admired of her, and up until today is a source of inspiration. She turned to me with a tranquilizing smile on her face... maybe a new dimension in the range of lumens that this girl radiated in each gesture.

"At least we have each other." She said, although it didn't seem I heard resignation in her words.

"There's a _Daisho_ in the dojo, if you want to do a seppuku, it'll be my pleasure to cut your head off."

For some strange reason, I felt the impulse to take her hand. I did it like that and she didn't seem to be bothered by it. I ignore why, but even now I feel something that stops me from having this kind of attitudes with her. Maybe my subconscious plays me a joke of not considering me at her level, or perhaps it is the routine of seeing her as a classmate, or as a leader of the club, although originally, I thought it was just because she bothered me. However, it's also true she looks for the opportunity for us to be alone every time she can, and this last action isn't recent... and when you look at it in retrospective, it seemed every time that happened, I had some stupid excuse to avoid that contact.

If we come out alive from all this, I will work on giving her my attention... after all... I had a perfectly normal and boring life... and she arrived to ruin it, making it a confusion of adventures without any sense at the whim of her ideas, as stupid as random, which I shunned at the time... but which made me completely change my vision of the world. Thanks to her I met aliens, people that come from the future and a mysterious organization of people with paranormal powers. These last two years have been, without a doubt, the most interesting and fun years in my life, and although I have to reproach her for so many abuses and huffs, I have to thank her for having me be part of her everything.

While this reflection became words inside my head, my free hand already caressed with delicateness her cheek. She had her eyes closed and her eternal bothered expression was gone.

My celestial lethargy ended a moment later, the internal peace that hugged me ended with a shiver that traveled my spine and bristled the hairs of my nape. I immediately stood in front of Haruhi to safeguard her, facing the cause of my uneasiness.

With her walk lacking of life, Nagato-Ni pierced me with her inert eyes at the distance, while I felt how she repealed me with that bloodcurdling aura she irradiated. The only shade in her mechanical pace, was the one provoked by a sack she dragged with her right hand, which could've been a big black laundry bag... I couldn't be sure, it troubled me more to think what she'd try after. She stopped at some ten steps from us, Haruhi stopped hiding behind me and faced her too.

Just as Koizumi had promised, the protection made itself immediately patent. Although Nagato-Ni stood immobile and didn't seem to have the intention to attack us, several laser peepholes illuminated her face and chest... there must've been at least six snippers ready to shoot, although I plainly doubted they were so much help against the monster in which Haruhi-Ni had made said interface into.

"What is it that you want?" Haruhi asked, ahead of me.

"Message." Nagato-Ni responded with the same intensity of a cadaver.

"I'm listening."

"Suzumiya Haruhi (Ni) wishes the reunion between us and our dimensional variants to take place in twenty-six hours and fifty-five minutes. It was her will the encounter were executed in a deserted place. The location is thirty-two degrees, thirty-seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds North, one hundred and twenty degrees, forty-four minutes and eighteen seconds East."

"Okay." Haruhi answered with aplomb... is that a place? "Do you want anything else here?"

"This interface could be considered your property." She said letting go of the sack she was dragging. "It has been incapacitated for interfering with the plans of Suzumiya Haruhi (Ni) and for trying to obtain information about me."

Without giving any other explanations, she turned around and started to undo the walked path. It took her only some seconds to get out of our visual field.

"Koizumi?" Haruhi said then talking on her phone, surprisingly dry. "I need you to find some GPS coordinates... yeah, they are..." She gave him the numbers that Nagato's counterpart had just indicated... Does she also have an eidetic memory?

While that happened, I walked towards the object left behind by Nagato-Ni, which originally seemed like a big laundry bag to me... the horror hit me directly in the stomach when I noticed that in reality it was a person... well, kind of. Nagato-Ni brought dragging by the hair no other than the immobile body of Kuyoh Suou, however, the normal camouflage that she tended to have on had zero effect, since I couldn't stop perceiving her at any moment... I bent down next to her immediately and I sunk my ear on her chest, fortunately, her heart was beating, nevertheless, I could barely perceive her breathing and her face kept her eyes opened and absented, like a catatonic stupor... it was very dismal. With delicateness, I took her in my arms, Haruhi caught up to me and looked at her with the same surprise as me, and we both made way to the house.

* * *

"Hasima's Island." Koizumi sad once we were reunited and showed us triumphal a satellite image of the place at issue. "It's a deserted island since several years ago, it's at some nautical miles from the peninsula of Nagasaki. It gained fame as the "Gunkan-Hima" because of its similarity to a world war two's warship. It's a small and ideal island for an entertaining gotcha.

"Let's get the paint balls ready then... we have a whole day." Haruhi said with unusual seriousness.

I watched her for a moment while she polished off the map Koizumi had obtained through the internet. Suddenly, I perceived her grief... her face, completely serious, makes her look ten years older. Trying not to think about that, I went up to the bedrooms' area, in which in one of them, Suou was being assisted and taken care of by Tachibana. I knocked a couple of times and I was allowed to enter, I found Suou in bed, changed into some pajamas and with her very long hair up in a ponytail. Tachibana helped her eat the miso soup Ms. Mori had prepared, since it seems she had some difficulties to coordinate her movements, although seeing her conscious was encouraging.

"How is she?" I asked Tachibana. Only then Suou seemed to notice me... she looked at me for about ten seconds, but not with those empty eyes, almost dead as I had gotten used to. She looked at me with something similar to astonishment. After, she lowered her eyes to the soup bowl and I noticed a marked blush on her face...

"Can you continue alone?" Tachibana asked with a maternal accent. Suou timidly assented and Tachibana got up from her chair, indicating me to follow her into the hall.

"What's happening with her?" I asked once outside.

"I'm not too sure... it seems Nagato-Ni cut her connection with the EMCC, on top of taking all her memory referent to her true nature away. She couldn't remember me, although she could remember her name and some details of her previous life. Nagato also just came to see her and she confirmed with me that she doesn't have any type of power... she's a normal girl."

"It's a shame... she could be a lot of help, although she didn't want to help us since the beginning." I said, trying not to make my affirmation be taken as a reproach. "I suppose she'll stay here. I'll ask Asa... the commander Michiru to take care of her while we get back."

* * *

The sunset surprised us after dinner. As soon as we finished, Haruhi took the floor only to ask everyone to put their best effort the next day and to make a small list of who would go to the encounter with the other brigade. The people from the future who would be in the campaign would be two agents I didn't know along with Fujiwara and Asahina (small), Asahina (big) would stay in our base as backup. Koizumi would leader the group of espers, confirmed by the Tamarus, Mori, Tachibana and a boy I've seen here, but I don't know his name, he seems to be a member of Tachibana's organization, the backup for them would be Mr. Arakawa. The TFEI terminals wouldn't leave support at the base, and would be Kimidori, unexpectedly one of my old professors from North High School, and of course, Nagato.

Next day's date would be at noon to complete the preparations and to have a small meal some hours before leaving. We would arrive to the location via TPDD, so despite the distance, the time wouldn't represent any problems.

"Suzumiya has matured enormously." Koizumi said to open the conversation while the both of us watched the sunset through the balcony. "Many of us even believed the day would never arrive in which she became aware of her powers, and even less so of how well she would take it."

"One matures due to difficulties and failures, not because of victories." I responded. "Since you told me what you and your Agency did, I always believed you were doing it wrong... I tell you now, because I believe it doesn't matter anymore. A small child gets educated through the work and a timely reprimand when he misbehaves... the only thing you all were doing was giving more candy to an overweight and full of cavities child."

"Probably, but our child has the capacity to destroy the world if she isn't in agreement."

"Well... I think story backs my way of seeing things... Haruhi learned to deal with failure and handled the truth better than I even believed. So, don't try to teach me things about how her mind operates, I think I have a great advantage over you."

"It's true... Do you want to know something strange...?" He then said without taking his bothersome advertising smile off. "For some time, I believed I was in love with her. I think I had expressed before that I thought she was a charming girl."

"I noticed." I don't want to believe I'm an expert, but according to Freud, jokes can show some of people's true ideas, in the time I've known the esper, he made countless insinuations about it. That without counting when Nagato changed the world, his alter-ego openly admitted his like for her.

"Really...? Well... it looks the best ones at deduction here are Suzumiya and you... I make it clear anyway that some considerable time ago I abandoned that posture. I know my own capabilities and I know it wouldn't have been possible for me to handle Suzumiya's character... plus, the degree of interest she's got on me doesn't compare in the most minimum to the interest she's got on you."

"Once again, you say incomprehensible things to me."

"I know you understand it... she recruited me only because I seemed interesting to her that I arrived after school had started, and when she knew the truth about my origin, I became into something similar to a lab specimen... because of the time I've shared with you all, I also became a friend... but just that... you, on the other hand, are special because you are whom with she wants to share the peculiarity of the people with whom she surrounds herself, whom has no type of consideration and doesn't pretend to serve her every whim, and whom she completely trusts because she knows you worried for her in reality, not trying to see her for your own interests like we previously did."

"Previously? Don't you continue serving the interests of the Agency?"

"Without a doubt, but as I had told you before... my loyalty with her and you is first, as much as with Asahina and Nagato, since I consider myself a member of the Brigade before a member of the Agency." He made a significant pause to then turned towards me full body and extending his hand in a western greeting. "I ignore what will happen tomorrow, but I want you to know that it's been a real pleasure to meet you all."

"It's not like we are going to die tomorrow..." I responded to the salute with a strong squeeze. There is more than one thing I despise from this guy, but they are only trifles. He's a great guy.

"Just in case... thanks for this great adventure. I'll see you tomorrow!"

Saying that, he left me in the balcony and a couple of minutes later I could see him losing himself among the trees of the park, surely walking home.

Entering the kitchen, I found perhaps the most curious picture I could have ever imagined. Haruhi and Asahina were hugging and both cried while laughing... I can't imagine what type of talk they had before I arrived. It's really none of my business, and it's not that I'm indifferent, but I suppose I must apply my judgement here to respect the words that in private both crossed. Fortunately for me, they seemed to have finished talking when I appeared and I didn't feel I'd bothered or interrupted them.

"It's time for me to leave." Asahina said still with cheeks on fire. "Kyon... tomorrow is a very important day for everybody... but perhaps the one that must do the hardest work is you..." She got close to me and did a reverence. "We all here completely trust you'll protect Suzumiya like no one else could do it... and beforehand I thank you for that."

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I simply imitated the reverence and seconds later we saw the time traveler part.

Haruhi and I walked then upstairs to see Nagato, whom along with Tachibana and Asahina (big) took care of Suou. When we united with the group, Tachibana talked about taking Suou with her as soon as we come back from our encounter. Suou seemed to have recovered (or better said, gained) the color on her face and she seemed like a charming girl, although a little shy, and a little small for her age. Nagato united with us and we left the room.

"What's special about you?" Haruhi asked as soon as leaving the room, ignoring that Tachibana and Nagato went with us.

"What do you mean?"

"Every girl that gets close to you, ends up in love."

"Don't be ridiculous..."

"Ridiculous? Let's see... Asahina... and I mean both, they would give themselves to you without thinking twice..." So acute... "Yuki, because believe me, as quiet and discrete as she is, it is noticeable..." Damn it, a little respect, she walks a couple of steps ahead of you... "Tsuruya the same way, although she'd be out of your league," Hey... "Asakura too... plus, a little bird told me you two played biting one day..." That bastard Fujiwara will pay for this. "Tachibana not so much, although I believe you aren't indifferent to her, and now that girl Kuyoh... just looking at you she became uneasy... I've gotten to believe that even Koizumi liked you."

"The last part was spooky..."

"Don't be homophobic... to be frank, it wouldn't surprise me if he was gay..."

"Believe me, he is not."

"Did you declare your love for him or something like that?"

"Don't be stupid..."

"Either way, my diagnosis is that one... girl that gets close to you, regardless of how normal, lacking grace or charism you might be, falls in love..."

"Does that apply to you also?" Check!

"I'm not in love with you..." Damn it... check mate...

"Then... How do you explain...?"

"I'll explain when we get back... it's complicated."

Settled such a curious exchange of impressions, Tachibana left and Haruhi and I stayed on the porch with Nagato, ready to leave as well.

"Nagato..." I said opening the goodbye. "Perhaps I've never openly expressed it to you, but I want you to know you are who I trust most. I don't doubt not even for a moment you won't give your best tomorrow. So I'd like you to know regardless of the result we obtain in the fight, we will be very thankful... as much as for tomorrow as for everything you've done for us in the five years you have knowing us..." I was obviously considering she met us and helped us much earlier than entering high school. "You are our winning card."

Nagato assented with the stoicism of always and turned around to leave.

"Yuki..." Haruhi called. "I know all the resentment you must keep against Yuki-Ni... but please... amongst all the feelings you must learn from humans... don't learn vengeance... it will only poison your spirit, and it won't give you Asakura back... keep that in mind."

The alien turned towards Haruhi.

"Is it an order?" Well... giving up on that motive must be very difficult for her.

"Of course not... just as this lout, I completely trust your good judgement... because of that, I don't want that good judgement of yours to darken in the face of something so vain as a vendetta... you are much more than that."

Nagato reasoned the words of her leader for some seconds, without taking those eyes infinitely deep off Haruhi.

"Understood."

What this last thing said, she crossed the door.

* * *

Dressed in pajamas and already laying down, I see Haruhi's back seated on the bed's counter headboard, finishing putting her clothes for bed on and drying her hair after the bath. I felt an uneasiness similar to when I took the high school's admission test... however, that time it game me some comfort knowing that my grades and my intelligence weren't so low as to make me worry much about the result. This time is different... not only it's uncertain the outcome of the encounter tomorrow, but we also have a great chance of losing... if that was the case...

It doesn't matter...! I will defend Haruhi with my life... for the well-being of everybody... Oh, what does it matter now! Yes, I want to defend her! Right now, the world doesn't matter to me...! And to fully fulfill this purpose, I need to adequately sleep... but I don't believe I can do it.

"Mr. Arakawa has told me very interesting things." Haruhi commented giving the final touch to the ends of her hair with the towel.

"Like what?" I asked, casual.

"He told me the best way to assume control of the power I have, is making it easy to understand for me..."

"And how is it easier to understand for you?"

"He posed several scenarios and theories to me... I like one in particular and I am trying to focus on it."

"What theory did you like?"

"The one that says I have the power of making wishes real." This theory Koizumi had already exposed to me some time... I have to admit it is one of the most attractive sounding."

"And how is it going? It is working?"

"I don't know yet..." A smile drew on her face and started to get close to me, crawling on the bed. "What's your wish?"

"I wish to sleep... I haven't adequately done it in weeks... I wish a long and deep sleep, that allows me to recover all my strength."

She set on my side and sheltered her arm under the covers like me. She took my hair and softly pulled it.

"Good night." She said with warmness.

It was a thing of thirty seconds... a stupor took over my body, like if in a moment, all the weight, as physical, as emotional disappeared... to do an appropriate analogy, it was like if ten people got out of a two-seater car at the same time.

I could see Haruhi... she covered her nose with her index and thumb and tried to breath... I hope she never stops doing those silly things that make her unique... with that idea in my mind, I allowed Morpheus to take me to his dominions... tomorrow will be an extremely long day...

 **Chapter 10.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Well, as you surely can assume, we are approaching to a conclusion: the end is near. But let me tell you, there's still a lot of things to know and read, so keep reading, we still have a couple of surprises to you.

 **Translator Notes:** Is this the calm before the storm? Haha. I think so... Guys, I've been really busy at work, so I apologize for the delay... What did you guys thing of this chapter? Do you think pepsipes hinted at some of the things will happen next? I'm rooting for the SOS Brigade! And hope I get a break at work so I can have the next chapter ready faster this time.

*I want to give a shout out to Ghost Man! I know it doesn't seem like it but it's very encouraging reading what you have to say every time, now if everyone else could follow your lead, that'd be great. Lol!


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11.**

The morning rescues me from the most reconstituting rest I have ever had, while a melody crosses my ears and it becomes confused with what's left of my dreams... suddenly, I'm in the middle of a big stage, and dressed in our best outfits, the five brigade members are occupying places in the proper arrangement of an orchestra. Nagato, attired in a beautiful lavender dress occupies the spot of the first violin and she does a perfect execution of her instrument. Further down, at the silver flute, is Koizumi, elegant and discrete in a black smoking suit. A little behind, Asahina joyfully sounds a huge harp in an exquisite golden pink dress, and in front of everyone, in a man's smoking suit, only standing out her yellow ribbon, Haruhi sways with aplomb the baton. What about me then? Oh... no, no, no... that can't be me...

 _O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!  
_ _Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,  
und freudenvollere.  
Freude! Freude!  
Freude, schöner Götterfunken  
Tochter aus Elysium,  
Wir betreten feuertrunken,  
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.  
Deine Zauber binden wieder,  
Was die Mode streng geteilt;  
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,  
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt._

Ok, I know my voice is kind of deep for being sixteen, but it hardly compares to a baritone's... although, after the initial surprise of being the voice that sings, I let myself get carried away from the beauty of the piece... I know this is also a symbol... but I won't break my head trying to understand it... today I must concentrate, today will be the day we define what will happen with our world and with ourselves... today...

* * *

I opened my eyes in the face of this reasoning, and finding there is already sunlight is something makes me profoundly happy. Turning towards the alarm clock on Haruhi's side (already absent), I see with rejoice it's close to nine in the morning. That explains why I feel so full of energy: I've slept twelve hours straight. While I get up from bed, I continue to hear the music that brought me back to the world of the alive, and even though it sounds remastered, I know it's an old recording because how well-executed it is.

Just after brushing my teeth and getting adequately dressed to go downstairs, the climax of the fourth movement of the interpretation exploded, the ninth symphony, in case you haven't guessed the theme I'm talking about. Even if you aren't fans of classical music, you can still find it extremely invigorating... almost jumping all the steps, I scandalously arrived at the lounge and I entered the dining room, where Mori, Asahina (both), Tachibana, Koizumi and Haruhi do the pertaining to feed the whole battalion. At the table, all I didn't mention are already seated, which will participate in today's incursion in the south of the country, in the far away waters of Nagasaki.

"Do you need help here?" I asked after giving a fleeting greeting to the eating guests and directly entering the kitchen.

Everything is covered." Koizumi responded with his trademarked smile, that just today doesn't seem so bothersome. "Did you sleep well?"

"He slept a whole life..." Haruhi responded for me. "...lazing around like that isn't allowed to the brigade members, even less if he's a founding member like you!"

"Perhaps if you let me sleep more often, I wouldn't have this problem."

It wasn't until after I said it, I realized all the possible implications my affirmation carried. Haruhi lower her face with embarrassment towards the meal she was cooking.

"Well... then perhaps you should stop taking Kyon's sleep away, Suzumiya..." Tachibana said with mischievousness, provoking a discrete laugh amongst everyone present, except for Asahina (small) who seemed hadn't understood the joke.

"Do not misunderstand things!" Our commander responded, heated. "And you!" She said pointing with the spoon she held with her right hand. "Help me take this to the table."

A big family meal. For an instant, I craved the moment like this... after all, they perhaps will be the only family I'll have left. That meal and the next table talk were the most agreeable I went through, and once more I have the wish the moment perpetuates forever. However, time seems to go by faster when you're enjoying it.

* * *

Before completely assimilating it, the clock was announcing it was two in the afternoon.

"The moment has arrived, we have to be ready at the most in an hour." Haruhi indicated given for ended the lucid talks. Our date with destiny will be at five in the afternoon.

That's how it was done. Koizumi talked with the other espers and gave indications on how to attack his counterpart, being the first one to defeat his alter-ego. Asahina received something like last minute advice from her adult 'self' while the other agents from the future compared notes.

"Perhaps you'll need this." Fujiwara suddenly said getting close and extending something to me.

"Thank you." I plainly said, like in all our talks. It was a sheath for the combat knife, it had a strap to set it where it was more comfortable for me, but the adjustment for the blade was magnetic, which didn't allow me to draw it and put it back in without using straps or seals.

Nagato, Kimidori and my old teacher were in the porch. The three of them were shoulder to shoulder and watched with indifference the sky, I suppose they are unloading some update... if the comparison is valid.

Haruhi showed up a little after. She wore a camouflage uniform and her yellow band had been replaced by a beret, also in a camouflage pattern, while her left forearm was already adorned with the band with the legend, "Supreme Commander" that she had made the first day we all got together.

"Let's go upstairs..." She said directed at me, cautious nobody else heard her. "I have something for you."

Arriving to the second floor, to the bedroom to be precise, she threw a camouflage outfit to me, very similar to hers, only that mine didn't have a beret or band. Without thinking twice, I put it on... being dressed like this gave a certain solemn touch to the event, in the same way, it gave a sense of belonging. Plus, I wasn't the only one that would wear a special outfit. From what I heard, Koizumi and his people would wear a type of outfit of light and fire retardant material. Asahina and her faction would wear the same outfits that Fujiwara used to wear all the time... they stick to your body a lot, and in the case of Asahina (small), the grey suit she was wearing, let very little to the imagination.

"If we don't come back, we'll at least be at the height of fashion..." I said cunning looking at the mirror while fixing the dagger on my right leg.

"We'll come back." Haruhi said, suddenly absent. A moment after she turned towards me with shinny eyes. She threw herself at me making us both fall on the same bed we had shared these last weeks... passionately, she began to kiss me, and after a moment, she made me suffer with kisses, bites and other oral games on my right ear... I thought I had made it clear it was a vulnerable zone for me. "Remember this feeling well..." She told me in a whisper without stopping. "Because when we come back... I will do the same thing in another part of your anatomy... and believe me if I tell you, you will like it."

How to respond to something like this?

* * *

At four and a half in the afternoon, the courageous members of the SOS Battalion were reunited at the agora in the park. The strategy that would be followed consisted of sending this first wave of fifteen people, among which the five original brigade members were. We would try to defeat the SOS-Ni Brigade... however, if this first try failed, we would try to keep Haruhi safe and arm a second team, which, fed with the previous knowledge of the first group, would have a bigger chance at defeat. As you can well imagine, the contingencies weren't being discarded... it included casualties... we had already suffered in previous days the loss of Asakura, so in one way or another, we were aware some of us could not come back... Nagato-Ni didn't have any type of contemplations in trying to assassinate Nagato. Asahina-Ni went further away from contemplations, she simple was bloodthirsty... Koizumi-Ni was so stupid he could end killing someone by accident. Mentally prepared in the face of this panorama, the people from the future shared a last present with the first marching squadron.

"I know they don't look like caramels..." Asahina (adult) began while showing the diminutive preserves she had given us. "... you must eat them, but know they aren't candy in reality... the use of this technology was authorized given the emergency... they're small nano machines made from a base of proteins and they will be used to communicate amongst us.

We all did as indicated, but I didn't notice anything happened...

 _"_ _Can you hear me?"_ Ah! That voice is Haruhi's! Straight into my brain!

 _"_ _How the hell did you do that?"_ I asked disconcerted the girl next to me, who had barely whispered those words, although I could clearly hear them.

 _"_ _I supposed this is what we ate does_..." She looked at me dazedly without finishing her statement... she whispered the words, I didn't move a facial muscle and yet she could her me.

 _"_ _As you have noticed..."_ Asahina (adult) explained _"...this dispositive opens auditory channels in a very similar way a radio would do. The sound doesn't go through your ears, but the machines installed themselves directly into your Corti's organ and are manipulated directly by your thoughts... by simply thinking it, you can decide with whom to open a channel and you can transmit phrases without the need to orally articulate them."_

Asahina (adult) finished giving us details and some minutes later, the fifteen of us were holding hands, prepared for the first of two jumps we would give to arrive at our destiny.

"Good luck everyone... we trust you." The adult version of our time traveler said good bye and stepped a little away from us.

* * *

The horrible dizzy feeling hit me despite apparently being prepared. I didn't open my eyes, but as soon as my feet felt the ground again, I noticed the first change: surely the elevation is different, I immediately hyperventilated feeling the excess of oxygen in the air... we must be at sea level... on the other hand, the climate had become much more humid and the aroma of the ocean filled my lungs. Finally, I lowered myself to look. It seems everyone coincided with me and we all opened our eyes at the same time. We were in the middle of a coastal highway.

"We are in the four hundred ninety-nine route, in the prefecture of Nagasaki." Asahina (small) informed us while we moved from the vehicular arroyo, particularly deserted. "We are in a region known as Meoto-Iwa, if you look that way, you can see our destination." She said pointing between the two enormous rocks, united by a _shimenawa_ and with a _torii_ arc on the top of the highest rock.

"Is that the Island of Hashima?" Haruhi asked having a look around the oceanic landscape.

Asahina confirmed with a gesture. From this point, the island we were heading was perfectly appreciable. Just as Koizumi had anticipated, seeing it from here, as much for its size as for its shape, the island perfectly passes as a huge and antique war vessel, the reason of the name _Gunkan-Jima_.

Once again, the nostalgia preyed upon me. Trying to elude it, I turned towards the opposite side from our destination, towards the small hills. I couldn't help to feel apprehension due to the progress and everything our culture had moved forward until today. Only in this country, we are more than a hundred and twenty million people, the commitment raises to that amount only at the national level... we are talking about close to six thousand million souls at the world level, and only talking about our world... I ignore the size of the population in the future Asahina comes from, and I can't either imagine the way the EID does censuses.

We couldn't lose. This encounter wouldn't be considered a survival try... defeating the Brigade SOS-Ni represented something higher... more than justice, it was a moral act. The ideal situation would be to finish them and to close the cycle, that according to Asakura, had repeated more than two thousand six hundred times, but frankly, I'd conform with simply throw them out from here, if we achieve it, other worlds can surely do it too... don't take me as a selfish person, but the world where I live was my only concern.

I turned my head towards the right feeling someone was getting close. From Haruhi's facial expression, I deducted her mind would go through a consideration similar to mine.

"Well... here's your adventure." I mentioned.

"Are you afraid?"

"Like never before."

"I didn't imagine you were such a coward..." No... I'm not afraid for my life, but for yours... as if she was hearing what I was thinking, she smiled and continued. "Nothing bad will happen to me... plus, who else could direct the brigade if I'm missing?"

After some seconds without speaking, I took her hands and I made the most serious expression I could. I then said:

"Do you remember some time ago I asked you if you trusted me?"

"Yes... I remember..." She responded looking at me with suspicion.

"Do you still trust me?"

"Of course..."

"Then I need you to swear to me."

"Okay..." She didn't sound completely convinced.

"I need you to swear to me that, regardless of the circumstances, you will do what I tell you to do."

"But…"

"Please! It's important!"

She was about to complain, but she contained herself and stayed quiet. At the end, she resolved:

"Okay..."

"Say it..."

"OK I promise..."

"Swear to it…"

"I swear I will do what you tell me to do."

I smiled and placed her hands on her sides again.

"You said the words... if you don't keep your word, I will never forgive you and I'll leave the brigade."

"And who the hell do you think you are to condition me?"

I must carefully choose the following words... they will be very helpful for when this end...

"A friend... or I don't exactly know what, we must discuss it as soon as we go back... but I'm not conditioning you, I'm doing the necessary to return well... and together."

"That's cheating, you're taking advantage of my weakness..."

"I learned from the best." I said amplifying my smile.

"Stupid..." The insult came in the regular way, but then, Haruhi's gesture darkened with something similar to a depression. "Then... I also want you to swear to me..."

"What is it?"

"Regardless of what happens..." Her voice seemed to break. "...don't separate from me..."

"I swear..." Again... to choose the adequate words. "... that I will do the necessary to return safe."

"That's not what I asked..."

"But it's the best... plus, your petition is implicit in the commitment."

She looked at me with an incredulous expression and half-closed eyes, while raising her long eyebrows and crossing her arms.

"Suzumiya..." Asahina intervened, catching up with us. "It's time... are you guys ready?"

Haruhi dedicated a last look at me and extended me her hand.

"Of course... let's go..."

Thirty hands held each other forming a circle, like if a children's play was about to happen... I wish that infernal device didn't produce dizziness.

Our last jump took us at the end of our destination. My feet found a bunch of loose debris on the ground, while we were surrounded by demolished buildings and the open sea at one of our sides. The pass of time, and surely the salinity of the environment, had eroded the constructions in less time than normal, in a way that even the concrete under our feet looked worn out. A big part of the buildings that surrounded us seemed to have been destined for residential use, although there was one with only a couple of floors that had the appearance of a factory. Of course, the biggest difference I noticed in relation to Pripyat, the other ghost city I visited thanks to Asahina-Ni, is the aura it released... Hashima felt like an isolated and boring place, while Pripyat made you feel an immense sadness.

"We're here..." Fujiwara said looking at the empty space some meters ahead of us with apprehension.

Only a pair of seconds had to go by for the loose gravel to creaked once again when receiving the weight that materialized in the air... we were finally there...

Five people had appeared, sheathed in black suits. On the extreme left was the precious face of Asahina-Ni was, she looked extremely angry... she surely hadn't forgiven us from leaving her stranded in Ukraine the last time we saw each other. On everybody's right was Koizumi-Ni... his stupid smile was full of a bad dissimulated trust... he seemed to have prepared to be at the level of our own esper, with whom he got even given the result of the last encounter, in which I wasn't present. Next to the idiot was the terrifying presence of the group's alien. Nagato-Ni looked at us with her expressionless eyes, to then concentrate that look capable of going through walls in Nagato and the other interfaces... next to Asahina-Ni was one of the most enigmatic members of the SOS-Ni, with whom we hadn't had any contact yet. Kyon-Ni... damn it, why don't I say my name with the 'Ni'...? Ah... I suppose that if no one calls me by my real name, I don't have a reason to do it with this impostor... either way, he was just there, with a gesture that I commonly see in the mirror before all this craziness started... he looked infinitely bored while looking at us with his hand in his pockets, without paying much attention to us. And the cause of all the mess was at the center of the group. With arrogance in her face and her strange curved eyebrows over those beautiful eyes, amber and shiny like supernovas, was Haruhi Suzumiya-Ni, with arms crossed over her chest and a malefic smile... it would make anyone scare, but my own Haruhi had shown me not to be afraid of that gesture, which was adoring her face every time she had some crazy idea, the only substantial difference with ours, was the violet hairband adorning her hair.

Haruhi-Ni started to walk towards us with firm steps. Immediately, Haruhi did the proper getting close too. Instinctively, I began to walk next to her. At less than five meters away, the three of us stopped.

"I suppose you know what can happened at the end of the day, right?" The girl with the hairband asked with the annoyed tone that Haruhi used to use when I first met her.

"Asakura told us." Our brigade leader responded.

"Of course... Asakura... what a pity, she was really entertaining..."

"Entertaining...? She saved our lives! I won't allow you to offend her memory that way!"

"Is that anger?" Haruhi's counterpart laughed... I felt something similar to when our own Haruhi extorted the computer club president... is it that this version of her hasn't transcended low provocations as a method?

Haruhi took a deep breath... she was controlling herself very well.

"Yes... a big one... but that won't be the reason why we will defeat you... no one else will die because of you..."

"What are we waiting for then?" Haruhi-Ni amplified her smile even more... she looked particularly excited in the face of the idea of a face off at her level. This said, the four remaining members of her brigade began to get close. "Would you be as kind as to prepare the battle field?"

"What?" Haruhi asked, almost as confused as me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you surely don't know how to do it... then, I'll do it myself..."

Haruhi-Ni closed her right fist with force and took the same wrist with the other hand, putting them at her face level... she looked like she was making a big effort. And as if her closed fist was attached with glue, she was using all her strength to open it again, in a way that her face got injected with a scarlet color for some seconds... after she finally opened her fist, in the same spot something that at first seemed to me like a diminutive soap bubble floated... after an instant, it started to grow... five seconds after it was the size of Haruhi... it kept on growing trapping us all inside it. Finally, in close to half a minute, the whole island and a good part of the ocean that surrounded us had been trapped inside the bubble... dark and leaden sky, lack of noises, wind, or ocean tide. A perfect closed space.

Recovering from the surprise, Haruhi turned around to reunite with our group, I followed her of course. We got to them... there was an uneasiness full of fear in the environment.

"It's time for the truth..." Haruhi said. "Good luck everyone."

"The name of the game will be...!" Haruhi-Ni yelled in the distance. "Catch the flag!"

I suppose you have an idea of what the flags would be...

Haruhi faced the invading Brigade with an overflowing with determination face.

"Let the game begin then..." She whispered.

As if somehow their minds were connected, Haruhi-Ni raised her hand... letting her dogs loose...

Koizumi-Ni went flying onto the sky becoming the immense green light sphere, to then make a turn, heading to the sea. The next moment, six crimson bullets persecuted him, Koizumi at the head. Asahina-Ni made a movement with her arms. Immediately, something like an armor over them illuminated with violent electrical discharges... I can't image what kind of artefact she's using but it releases a scary sound... some seconds after, she disappears. Our agents from the future imitate her to appear together with her in one of the old buildings and unleashing a body to body battle which I'm simply unable to understand. Nagato-Ni simply began to walk towards us. Nagato, Kimidori and the professor walked with the same calm to the encounter.

I took Haruhi's hand and I began to drag her towards the closest construction to hide her, while Haruhi-Ni and Kyon-Ni stayed on the open, totally exposed... perhaps I can use that advantage at some point...

Haruhi Suzumiya's heart must be perforated...

Come on, it can't be that easy, there must be a trick... the other members of the brigade are at a clear disadvantage, so I must take the most advantage at every second they gain for us...

"Fujiwara!" I yelled while I ran with Haruhi. At my command, the bastard appeared next to us touching my shoulder. A moment after, we were inside one of the buildings.

"Can you guys take on Asahina-Ni?" I asked recovering from the dizziness.

"She's crazy... if she really has that potential, the girl in your brigade is horribly wasting it."

"Help her as much as you can, but don't get too confident... I count on you."

Fujiwara looked at me surprised and a moment after he vanished again.

"Okay, this is what we will do..." I indicated Haruhi in a low voice while I observe the fight through the crystal window. "...I need you to stay here... you mustn't move under any circumstance..."

"And what will you do?" She questioned.

"I'll go get Haruhi-Ni... my other self doesn't seem dangerous."

"No way! We will go together!"

"No." It wasn't necessary to raise my voice. "You swore you'd follow my indications... Don' you have a word?"

She looked at me furious for some seconds.

"Fine! But as soon as I see something wrong, I'll go get you!"

"That's what I like to hear."

"Idiot!"

Done with the agreement, I started to walk downstairs...

"Kyon..." I heard a whisper. "Be very careful."

I assented and I left the girl on the higher floor, hoping she wouldn't do anything stupid. As soon as I was outside, I figured the type of battle that was taking place. Over the waters, I could see the six red spheres attacking the big green plasma that was Koizumi-Ni, but he seemed to become more agile since that fight over the roof at school. He constantly impacted them with the monstrous energy discharges that I have seen him generate before, but he couldn't manage to knock anyone down... they're really determined to leave their lives trying to bring him under... resist... I will make sure this nightmare ends soon.

A scream took me out of my thoughts... it was one of the agents from the future whom I didn't know... in one of the fleeting appearances, he was reached by the bloodcurdling artefact which Asahina-Ni carried on her right arm... I could clearly see how the electrical discharge violently shook him to then throw him several meters away... I saw him convulsing falling onto the ground... normally I'd go ahead to help him, but not today... my mission is another one. Barely an instant later, Asahina and her counterpart are left face to face... the winning card of our tea angel goes projected towards Asahina-Ni... A perfect _Mikuru-Beam_... for an instant I thought the fight would end there... however, the same artefacts that Asahina-Ni used as weapons had dissipated the energy of the ocular beam of our girl from the future, making the ground and part of the construction behind her suffer the damages instead.

Hiding among the debris and the turmoil I could see my objective. Haruhi-Ni observed complacent the scene while comparing notes with Kyon-Ni. Damn it, is that my attitude all the time? Suddenly it doesn't seem so rare that Haruhi got irritated with my behavior.

"Get down!" I heard directly in my head. It was Haruhi's voice. I instinctively lay down chest down. A gigantic building piece had been thrown towards me and it dismally stopped against the construction on the opposite side, making a good part of it collapse. From among the debris, Kimidori raised up, and she dedicated one of those smiles that I start to think they're her presentation by default... she looks hurt... without doubting it she got close to me.

" _What are you pretending to do?"_ She asked procuring staying out of the sight of any enemies and without articulating a word.

 _"_ _To get to that pair."_ I indicated to her pointing with my head, and also without opening my mouth.

After analyzing me for some seconds, she extended her right hand and started to do a chant.

" _Camouflage... you aren't visible in this light spectrum_." She tells me after finishing and without mediating anymore thoughts, she goes back to the battle that is taking place against Nagato-Ni.

 _"_ _Kimidori..."_ I thought. She stopped without looking at me. _"Will you guys make it?"_

 _"_ _That shouldn't be your concern."_

 _"_ _Even so, I must know it."_

 _"_ _The probabilities don't go higher than fifteen percent."_

" _Resist…"_

Kimidori goes on with her walk. I continue with mine. Trusting the words of the interface that helped me, I got up and I start to walk towards Haruhi-Ni and my lethargic other self, in effect, they don't see me, in more than one occasion they have turned towards me without noticing me... this is my opportunity.

A new scream takes my concentration away. Once again provoked by Asahina-Ni... without any type of contemplation she broke the left leg of another unknown agent from the future, then she touches him with her right palm giving him the pain that I myself have experimented in her hands... she's really a bitch... I hope Asahina defeats her.

It's less than ten meters between Haruhi-Ni and I... my hand searches for the survival knife. The magnetic sheath doesn't generate any noise, although it wouldn't matter given the explosions and other noises proper of this small war. I must only reach her... reach her and make the blade perforate her chest... God... that sounds horrible... but I don't have time to think about that... I must only do it...

What is the necessary force to go through the breastbone of a person?

How can you think about those stupid things now? Just do it...

I raised the knife over my head... and I began to run...

Perhaps if I give the blow from the back, it will be easier to reach her heart...

Run... you almost make it... Forgive me, Haruhi... I feel that somehow, I'm also doing this to you...

And it finally happened...

A potent energetic discharge hit me... or better said, I hit it... of course, how could have I been so stupid to think that it would be so simple? An invisible field of energy, surely created by Nagato-Ni guarded the pair, I couldn't help but to scream at contact, but my camouflage hadn't disappeared yet...

"He's here!" Haruhi-Ni said, surprised for the very first time since the contest began.

"He can't go through the protection from Nagato (Ni) unless we are the ones to get clos..." Kyon-Ni interrupted himself, knowing he had given me the trick to reach them... they must walk towards me and not me towards them... considering I'm invisible in their eyes, I have a small opportunity... thanks, other self, for being so stupid. That's rare... I'm not that brute, right?

"I hope he didn't hear you..." Haruhi-Ni said beginning to walk... it was my chance, I must move in the same direction in which they'd go and surprise them...

Just then that idea crossed my mind when a blinding light caught everyone's attention, the extremely white and immense light that formed from nothing began to become small, until it became he green sphere which is Koizumi-Ni... I could see six small objects fall... all of them immediately recovered and began to ascend in scarlet again, going back to the charge. Koizumi-Ni, decided, flew to their encounter and as soon as he was a good distance away from them, he again did the trick of the enormous light... I understood then what he was doing... he absorbed them into his energy and pushed them all towards the sea... The idiot himself submerged in the waters, now agitated due to the great amount of energy that was being liberated... his light got lost in the deepness. Ten seconds after, only a diminutive body came out of the water... He elevated himself slowly floating, and when he was at a considerable distance, he turned his green sphere back on... Koizumi and the others didn't come out of the sea... I felt as if my heart broke...

 _"_ _Koizumi? Can you hear me?"_

Silence.

 _"_ _Koizumi! Respond damn it!"_ There was no answer. _"Mori! Tachibana! WHOEVER!"_

" _Kyon! ¡Koizumi isn't responding! Did you see what happened?"_ That's Haruhi's voice…

 _"_ _They're fine! Don't come out the building_." I lie to avoid she does something crazy... inside, I pray my words to be true.

"Koizumi-Ni goes around the island, probably making sure nothing comes out of the ocean. Bastard... Koizumi has already defeated you, without a doubt, he'll give you a lesson again...

The loud crash of a building collapsing captures the attention of everyone. The foundations of the construction have been melted by the _Mikuru-Beam_ and there's no one in its interior while the construction gives in under its own weight. At times, both Asahinas appear furiously exchanging blows... Asahina looks truly heroic, I feel a deep respect for her... I think I begin to see with other eyes her adult version if she had to go through all this. There's something very different from the last time I saw the visitor from the future fight... this time, every time they exchange blows, the ground under their feet literally shake, like if every hit carried the power of the assault of a big bus. I wonder how much the suits they have on will last...

A new painful scream interrupts the cacophony of explosions and collapses... but this time it comes from Asahina-Ni's throat... in a lucky move, Asahina managed to sink her nails in the chin of her counterpart, making them follow a diagonal trajectory along the, up until that moment, gorgeous face of Asahina-Ni... four bloody grooves crossed her earlier perfect factions, which exalted in the face of her gesture of pain and rage.

"Sad... she had a divine face..." Haruhi-Ni says like if someone accidently had dropped a never used disposable tissue. At the time this happens, I'm standing some meters away from the adversary brigade leader and her companion... they're taking a trajectory direct towards me... I just need to wait a little longer...

A new object is projected from the place where the alien interfaces fight. The object passes some meters away from me to end sunk some centimeters into the ground... my mind yelling asks me not to turn to see, but my morbid mind defeats me. My old professor lays face up... immobile... this must end now! Hurry up and come close!

"Finish her up, Mikuru (Ni)!" Haruhi-Ni says, amused... I turned towards what she sees... surely tired from disappearing, the two time travelers only exchange blows inside the building I originally identified as an old factory... its interior was visible given that some walls had had doors that weren't there and other simply had given into the pass of the years...

Only then I paid attention to their fight... by now, the fatigue of both was such that there was practically no technique in their fight... they only threw punches without trying to defend themselves from the ones they receive... even so, both were face to face, immovable, while the ground under their feet shook from the monstrous force of their fists...

 _"_ _Asahina! Get out of there! The building won't endure much more!"_

 _"_ _No... don't worry... I will defeat her... protect Suzumiya... you both must get out of here well..."_ She responds to me. The "voice" that gets to me through her communicator sounds exhausted.

Just as I had predicted, the "factory's" pillars lost strength... the girls didn't stop fighting... I observed with horror how the debris buried them while a thick dust cloud formed around the construction, at the same time as the sound from the blows they gave each other stopped.

Close to half a minute passed in which even Haruhi-Ni seemed to contain her breathing... part of the dust dissipated, allowing to see the mound of ruins of a little less than three meters in height which the construction had become. A pebble fell from the highest part... a signal of life... then another pebble and like that, for some instants, until finally, some dusted brunette hair raised from amongst the rocks... mi heart threatened to stop when I saw the horrible marks on the face of Asahina-Ni... emerging from amongst the remains... exhausted, evidently wounded... but victorious... the proof was when she completely came out, helped by her enhancers, took Asahina out from among the dust by her hair, to then throw her to roll all the way to the beginning of the mound... she didn't move... she was at a considerable distance, so I couldn't tell if she was breathing... please... let her be breathing... Asahina-Ni sat down with difficulty in the spot where she was and lower her face, trying to recover her breath... do it, you'll need it... because as soon as I finish what I have to do, I'll go against you... nobody does that to Asahina...

" _Mi… Mikuru…?"_

"Stay where you are _, Haruhi…"_

There's no response... I begged the heavens Haruhi didn't move from her spot. At this point, there was no doubt in my mind... I'm going to sink this steel in the chest of that miserable... and I will do it several times to avoid surprises... she's close, only some more steps...

Another shake was felt on the ground in the spot where the last pending battle was developing... it seems that they're also giving their all over there... at least I will help Nagato, at least, she will get out alive from here... wait, we'll all do it! Asahina and Koizumi surely are only hurt... we will go back all together... while my brain, in a desperate eagerness to avoid losing my mind, yelled those words to me, at the speed of a bullet, a body went projected out at some meters away from where I and my objective were... the speed didn't allow me to see the body in detail, but the fleeting green tone that I managed to get a glimpse of, I assumed it was Kimidori... she didn't reincorporate either... she had that nasty fluorescent blueish liquid over her body... It's enough! Haruhi-Ni was inside my range of action already... the game is over.

I ran as fast as my legs allowed me, knife raised, ready for everything... to perforate her heart... I allowed anger take over me, feeling the need almost organic to provoke her all the pain I could give her... I'd do it like that... some more meters...

A hand appeared from nothing holding my wrist high in the air... a second later my feet separated from the ground and I landed over my chest... the pain from several of the carpals and metacarpals breaking in my hand provoked a scream from me while I watched my combat knife fall at several meters ahead of me, at the feet of Haruhi-Ni. She and my counterpart looked at me. On my back, digging a knee on my spine was Asahina-Ni... How can they see me...? Of course... how stupid... Kimidori lays inert at some meters from us... without her, my camouflage is gone...

A last outbreak... the silence falls over the island finally... hopeful, trying to lift my head from the ground, I turned towards where Nagato was fighting with Nagato-Ni... she's our winning card. She'll make the difference.

The relief fills my lungs of air while I see our Nagato walk from where her fight developed... if she comes walking on her own, the result should've been good...

"Nagato!" I yelled at her with all the air the pressure from Asahina-Ni over my back allows me. "I knew you'd make it!"

She didn't reply at the moment... she looked at me with those eyes which I only know how to find an expression from and she stayed immobile some steps after.

"I'm sorry!" That comes out of her lips... I couldn't hear her, but I could read her lips... She's sorry? Sorry for what? What does that mean...?

While I thought which of those doubts to express to her first, I see her lose the strength from her legs... she fell on her knees, a moment later, she falls face forward without even using her hands.

No... Nagato no... without her there's truly no hope... was that it perhaps? The confirmation arrived when I saw Nagato-Ni walked next to the body of our own alien... two endless minutes went by. Nagato-Ni reached us, staying behind her leader. Then Koizumi-Ni landed next to her, with his lost gesture. Haruhi-Ni makes a signal to Asahina-Ni, who leaves my back immediately, allowing me to get up. Hurtfully, I stand up... the pain in my right broken hand obliges me to keep it close to my body.

"Where's my other self?" The girl with the violet headband asks.

"Go to hell."

"How rude!" She responds. That said, three blows are given to me by Asahina-Ni... this woman truly enjoys others' pain. "Do this simpler for you... tell me where she is and everything will be easier." My silence cost me another batch of blows... "Fine... it doesn't matter in reality, it'll be enough with you."

Haruhi-Ni turned towards Nagato-Ni. That'd be the end. The frightening alien began to raise her hand... it happened so fast...

"ENOUGH!"

The invading brigade dropped to the ground at the right moment, but not the alien... it was like if a gigantic hand had hit her, the impact made her land at the other side of the island... wait a moment! It's a gigantic hand!

Haruhi was already in the same esplanade as us... behind her... it's incredible... a celestial! Enormous and made of blue light... and it was under her control. What seemed out of place to me was that I was extremely surprised, but not the brigade... Koizumi-Ni immediately threw himself into the sky and from there began to attack it... and he was damaging it... I can see how Haruhi touches her head like if she was prey of a horrible migraine. And even with all that, she's heading our way.

"Leave!" I yelled at her.

"No way."

"You swore to it!"

Haruhi-Ni moves towards the opposite side from where Haruhi is coming, Kyon-Ni follows her.

"Isn't this so kind?" She asked mockingly...

While that happens, Haruhi's celestial falls and its light dissipates... I see her fall on her knees... a moment later, she lifts her face, her gesture indicates she is making a great effort... another celestial is created and it raises behind Haruhi, who again tries to reach us... reach me. Her celestial was very quick this time and its enormous hand directly dropped over her counterpart and mine, trying to smash them... this time however, it's not Koizumi-Ni who stops it... it's a hand as big, but from an orange titan which avoids the contact and began to hit the blue celestial... Haruhi-Ni could also make them... but yet, it didn't seem to provoke her so many problems as my Haruhi's...

And while the giants fought, Haruhi finally reaches me... she throws herself into my arms while the mental effort from her celestial is taking her close to passing out. I receive her. I'm not a man of tears... sometimes I even feel I'm too cold... but today I felt moved... feeling her corporal warm again makes me badly want to cry.

"Idiot... I told you to leave..."

"I won't leave without you."

"Of course not..." Haruhi-Ni meddles in. "You'll leave together. Is there anything else you want to say before the end?"

I stood in front of Haruhi... I was very careful she let go of me before saying the following sentence...

"Yes, I have some last words." I turned towards my brigade commander, moving a pair of more steps away from her. "Forgive me... things must be this way."

"What...?" She asks disconcerted.

"FUJIWARA!" The only one wouldn't doubt to leave me behind... the only one I could trust with Haruhi's life. It was time to complete his mission.

The mocking bastard showed up behind Haruhi. She instinctively turned around to see him.

"Don't you dare..." She threatened. He ignored her.

Fujiwara took Haruhi by her waist.

"KYON!" Her voice got lost into nothingness. Both had left already. He'd take her to some faraway place to keep her safe and give it a second chance to this world. In that same instant, the blue celestial disintegrated as if it had never existed.

I allowed myself drop on my knees. I turned my head and I saw the surprise of Haruhi-Ni, who tried to assimilate the escape. After some moments of reflection, she smiled and looked at me.

"Boy... you have some balls..." She tells me admired.

"Ask my Haruhi when she is breaking your head... she'll be able to tell you about it."

"And you also have a good sense of humor... although what you did was grand, it doesn't matter... all is needed for everything to end is for you to die... she won't be able to take it."

"Of course she will... you don't know her... you don't know anything about her... she's much better than you."

"Courageous words for someone who's about to die."

"It's just that I have nothing to lose now."

Haruhi-Ni continued looking at me with interest for some more seconds. Then she turned around to leave along with Kyon-Ni. This one lifted the knife that Asakura had inherited to me and put it in his clothes... damn thief.

"It was fun... he's all yours." I hear from Haruhi-Ni's lips when passing next to Asahina-Ni. I then heard the steps of the former getting close.

She took me with violence by the flaps and threw me against the closest wall, appearing at the same moment next to me, taking me again by my neck and rubbing herself against me. She stuck her face, partially haggard, to my cheek and whispered directly into my ear:

"I'd also like to know more about your balls..."

I moved my head in a way that my mouth was as close to her ear as it was possible.

"You know something?" I whispered in the same suggestive tone. "I wouldn't have a roll in the hay with you in a million years."

She moved a step away from me... her contradicted expression filled my soul with joy.

With all the rage and impulse she could get, she sunk her knee into my stomach... I could feel how at least two of my floating ribs cleanly broke, while my breakfast, along with an important amount of blood, were left splattered on the ground in front of me.

And she hit me with all the rage she could... I stopped counting after the twentieth impact... meanwhile, my mind began to absent itself from my body... we could say it was taking me to my happy place... in fact there were several... the classroom where I met her... the literature clubroom, taken over by us. The station and the small restaurant next to it... the curve close to my parents' house. The bedroom in _our_ house... an image got to me then... from Thursday's dawn... an immense and beautiful moon... the glow of those amber eyes...

The image was vivid... I suppose it was due to the fact I can't open my eyes due to the inflammation... I feel at least a dozen of broken bones, I know I'm missing several teeth already... however, I feel no pain. Haruhi will come for them and she'll finish them. I know... she can do that and much more. I only hope she finds someone that can continue narrating this story.

I imagined I could give a good speech before dying, however, my mind is empty... there's no witticism... no... wait... it isn't empty... there's a word... a name.

Haruhi.

 **Chapter 11.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** The last days my country got broken. We receive the punch of earth two times in only a few days, and many people died or lost everything. I know maybe is not of your business, however, I like to point the fact of how lucky all of us are (yes, that includes me, that was in a safe place in the right moment), and only because we are here, not worrying for our loved ones. Maybe you should know already, but I don't believe in god, but if you do, a pray for my people is great, but help in other way, as provisions or money, shall be even better.

You can help through the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores site, that redirect you to Cruz Roja Mexicana or UNICEF, and make donatios on Amazon and others.

Thank you very much.

About the story, I hope you are enjoying it, and please, let me know if is it that way. One more time, thanks to luf5, for an awesome work.

 **Translator Notes:** Okay, first, I'd like tell you guys how sorry I am it took so long for this chapter to be translated. Work had been very busy and it then got busier. I also started studying Japanese and that has been taking a lot of my time, but I love it! And lastly, my husband was gone all last week for work and I just couldn't find any time to translate since I had to take care of my children all by myself. With that said, I hope you aren't disliking me much right now. Hehe

About this chapter... wow, what a chapter, huh? I told you the story would get crazy and even more amazing. I know I said it before but seriously, pepsipez really did an amazing job with this. Who guessed what Kyon's plan was with respect to Fujiwara? It seems everything is lost now. Can you guys think of what Haruhi is going to do? Do you think she can save Kyon? We have a couple of chapters and an epilogue left... We'll get the answers to these questions soon. My husband is back so I should have the next chapter out sooner J Talk to you guys then!


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12.**

The alarm clock rang at the usual time. With grief, I look at the inexorable march of the seconds' hand, which presages the inevitable calamity that will fall over me next. There are accelerated steps in the hall, at the other side of the door of this small sanctuary.

Three... two... one...

"Kyon!" My little sister yells after opening the door with a bang. "Mom says breakfast is ready! Get up!"

I know it's useless, but I try to ignore the screams from my sister; barely an instant after, my covers are unmercifully torn away from my bed, leaving me at the mercy of the morning weather. Shamisen weakly meows, it almost sounds like a reproach, he immediately becomes a ball and goes back to sleep... lucky miserable.

Despite the violent awakening, which isn't other than our daily bread, I had a very invigorating breakfast and some minutes later I calmly peddled my bike towards the parking lot located at the bottom of the hill... I think I've mentioned it before, but the spring is my favorite season. The cherry blossoms leave a rosy carpet on the streets, while the temperature couldn't be described with any other words other than "ideal." Added to all the previous mentioned, today is April 1st. What's today's celebration? Well... today is the beginning of our senior year... OK, you caught me, I couldn't care less about that... what's really motivating is that today is the commemoration of the second anniversary of a great event for me... however, the second person involved in this event must not find out I harbor such feelings, otherwise, I'll be labeled as cheesy for the rest of my life.

"The only bad thing in all of this is that in a short time summer will begin and the heat... you don't know how much I despise it. I personally prefer winter." Taniguchi casually says. Despite his comment being a complain, like always, today he looks particularly happy.

"Really?" I respond without much eagerness, and only so he didn't feel ignored.

"Today is the day, my friend..." He completes after, with a complicity gesture.

"What day?"

"Today, I will ask her out..."

"Who?" I ask with a dumbfounded face.

"You really don't pay any attention to me, do you?" He looks at me with reproach... What did you expect? It's rare when something interesting comes out of your mouth. "Asakura, of course!"

"Aah...! Asakura...! Of course...!" I exclaim without being able to hide the surprise, proper of someone that has just found out.

Immediately, Taniguchi begins to narrate some made up story about a girlfriend he had some years ago who looked so much like her... it's nothing personal, but honestly, I don't think they'd make a good couple. Applying the axiomatic knowledge that "every pot has a cover," Asakura is a new piece of clothing, of fine and beautiful cloth... Taniguchi is just Taniguchi. Although, in any way it would seem strange to me that the sweet and compassionate character of our class delegate will end giving my inexperienced friend an opportunity. In the face of such reflections, I ignored the eloquent and very well structured rug of lies that my companion vomited, while I assented with my head. He surely will give me some information that I will dispose in the same way as it enters my brain.

Ended the soporific and lethargic school opening ceremony, I walked to what will be my new classroom for the rest of the year. As soon as I put a foot inside the room, a hand with force similar to industrial tongs captures my tie, forcing me to undo the walked path until standing again outside the room. Usually, an attitude like this could be replied with a complaint, but things don't work this here. Plus... that's simply the way she is, combined with the fact that, like everybody knows, one forgives a girlfriend for everything.

"Today we will have an emergency reunion during lunch time." Haruhi tells me with an illuminated face.

"I'm also happy to see you."

My comment provokes her to amplify her smile... it's shinning more and more... it's blinding me!

"Did you hear? All the club members will be in the same class this year! Isn't it great?"

"I didn't notice, I only searched for my name on the board..."

"We must do everything possible to sit close to them." She responds without letting me finish... only the normal way, if my conversation doesn't interest her, she disposes it and goes onto the next topic. She let go of my tie and began to walk towards the inside of the classroom, leaving me in the hall, still with my backpack on my shoulder. She was about to arrive to her seat, the last one on the last row from the classroom, and just then she remembers... she turns on her heels and with big strides comes back to me. Being less than a step away, she supports her hands on my shoulders while she stands on her tippy toes, closing her eyes... she presses with delicateness her lips against mine for barely an instant. "Good morning!" She whispers at the end.

"Oh, please... Isn't a little early for this?" A melodic voice complains some meters away from us.

Asakura gets close to us with her friendly smile of every day. Behind her, partially hidden, Nagato follows her, dissimulating her blush caused by the scene while pretending to clean her glasses. Some minutes later Koizumi had united with us. Asahina would come by in the afternoon, along Tsuruya to inform us about the results of the admission's exams to Tokyo University.

It was a very agreeable day, even the classes were fluid. With joy, we were informed that our adviser would be professor Mori from gymnastics and that it would be a particularly rough year having to be under the constant pressure of the exams that will prepare us for college.

* * *

Past the first classes, lunch time arrives. As it was usual, I tried to take out my bento to begin to eat, but the breeze that Haruhi left behind her when exiting the room reminded me of the club reunion.

"Aren't you going to the reunion?" I ask Nagato and Asakura, seated in the chairs near us.

"Reunion..." Nagato consults in a thread of a voice, while blinking confused.

"Yes... the reunion...!" Asakura responds while putting on her enigmatic smile... I know that wink... I know she's hiding something while I see her forced smiled and her eyebrows raised up high over her closed eyes.

"Eh... I didn't know there was a reunion..." Nagato continues perplexed.

"Of course you knew it!" Asakura exclaims without changing her gesture, but now looking lightly threatening while pinches the cheeks of the literature's club president we all belong to. "We will meet you there in a moment, Kyon, why don't you go ahead? Nagato and I must look for something to eat first."

"Oh... sure..." I told them while I see them going away towards the door... Asakura doesn't let go of Nagato's cheeks.

Before they left my visual field, I can see how Asakura whispers something in Nagato's ear which immediately makes her pallid face tinged scarlet...What are they up to? A second later, Taniguchi gets close to the pair... he calls Asakura, but I can't hear what they're saying, but Asakura dismisses Nagato, indicating to her with her hand that she will catch up to her shortly, and stays behind with Taniguchi... who would've guessed it? She dared...

Lunch box in hand, I made way towards the literature club room, in which, just like anybody could imagine, no one reads except for its president. The president, which is Nagato, only approves the activities proposed by the self-proclaimed "spokeswoman," Haruhi, and thanks to that, we've taken a couple of trips, we've also searched for great world mysteries and other crazy things of the type. I feel responsible with the true literature clubs in the country. I hope they can forgive me for holding the title of "member."

Arriving at the old building and going up the stairs, I found the door of the club room. I knocked a couple of times as courtesy.

"Come on in." I hear from Haruhi's lips

Walking past the door, I expected to see her seated at Nagato's desk, which it was in reality Haruhi's, since it was her who really occupied that place. She was barely some steps away from the door, like waiting for someone else to show up.

"Where's everyone else?" I ask in the face of the unusual that seems to me not being the last one to arrive.

"Lock the door." She indicates to me ignoring my question. I obey her, but I'm dying wanting to know... I begin to feel anxious.

"What's going on?"

"Do you know what day it's today?"

Well... so that's it... and I was worrying about being cheesy...

"April first..." I respond pretending it doesn't mean anything to me.

"And do you remember what happened today, two years ago?" She asks me, getting dangerously close and cornering me against the door. I do my best effort to not look nervous.

"I think I remember some..." I tell her with sarcasm... "a day like today a demented girl appeared in my classroom, talking incoherent things about aliens, time travelers, sliders, ghosts, demons, espers and other craziness."

"A dumb boy also appeared, bitter and judgmental." She says that without getting rid of her smile and without stopping getting closer to me. I begin to feel my personal space invaded... my heart beats fast. "I think this event deserves a... celebration."

She's already over me when saying that phrase. On one hand, the fact it's school hours and that Haruhi surely has a very, very stupid idea about how we should "celebrate" has me very anxious. On the other hand, I can feel the magnificent aroma of her hair entering my nose and threatening to turn off my common sense.

"Eh... Haruhi... I don't know what's going on, but I think it's a little, inappropriate..." I defend myself while she brings her face close to mine. Without any warnings, she buries her face in my neck... and begins to kiss it. "No, it's not a little inappropriate! It's _very_ inappropriate, Haruhi...!"

"Oh, don't be a hypocrite..." She reproaches me while passing her hands by my waist. "...it turns you on as much as it does me that we can be caught... plus, it what I said wasn't true... why would you carry this with you?"

Her right hand stretches out to my chest pocket and she takes its contents. A condom. Oh, come on, don't make that face while you read. It's a legitimate form of protection!

"I have that with me because... well, you know as well as me why I have it."

"Yeah, for situations like this one."

"Yes, I mean no! It's for when we leave here and... enough!" I tell her while I hold her by the shoulders and I pushed her off without force while she retakes her mouth attack against my neck.

"Don't make me use some force..." She tells me with that gaze full of auto satisfaction. She's right... to fight would be useless... isn't it sad that being I the man I must be submitted in this way...? I resisted another instant, but then I began to cooperate...

However, I won't let her get to where she wants... last time professor Mori almost caught us and I shake thinking what would happen if she found us in this situation... I just need to resist her stimuli... I must admit that every time it's more difficult, it seems I'm very transparent and she now perfectly knows the weak spots of my reasoning and she enjoys manipulating them and defeating them at her will. I must be firm...

"Wait..." She tells me, but she doesn't get away... she simply takes something out of her skirt pocket.

A little hair tight. Without taking off the yellow headband that she always wears, she puts her hair in an incipient ponytail... terrible! That was a direct blow, _Haruhi one, Kyon zero_. Done with the maneuver, she comes back to my arms... the intensity, quality and elaboration of the kisses and the pettings keep increasing... without being able to avoid it, my hands, apparently on its own initiative, begin to caress a part of her anatomy that it simply makes me go mad... on the direction of her back, but a little more south...

"You know something..." She whispers in my ear, enjoying my unrest. "I'm not wearing underwear."

What? No! That's cheating! Come on... you must resist, boy... _Haruhi two, Kyon zero_... I could resist the physical stimuli... I didn't succumb in the face of her kisses, her aroma or her corporal heat... I even feel proud about my auto control, since I haven't ceded despite she's been caressing my crotch for some minutes... exploiting all the potential that as a woman she's got, she's taking me to her territory... further away from the simply corporality of the sexual act, making me enjoy the words and imagination... without a doubt, whatever she wants to be good at, she effectively does it... she's simply wonderful.

"Kyon...?" She calls me in a whisper, directly into my auricular lobe.

"Yes...?"

"Ea...t..." Just that word. So bombastic to some that I've decided to censor me... a direct order... damn it! Hearing her talk so dirty is simply too much for me... the score would be Haruhi three, Kyon zero, but I would be lying. That one order is like a thousand points on her favor.

She's won.

Knowing it, she lets me do... it's me now who attacks her neck while my hands concentrate on her waist and hips. And now that she realizes I desire her in such a brutal way, she pushes me momentarily away while she leans against the big table at the center of the room. With elegancy rips the preservative's wrap... I should be doing that... in my eagerness of not being left behind, and trying not to look in such a hurry, I get rid of my pants... wait a minute...

"What are you doing...?" I ask her when seeing her putting the recipient between her teeth while she looks at me with an evil glow in her eyes.

"You'll see..."

Her knees touched the floor in front of me. With delicateness, she moved the bangs that her pony tail couldn't hold away from her face. Without using her hands, she began to put the condom on me... I would normally believe she should stop watching perverted things on the internet, but not today... this is simply fascinating... by the way, I'm stiffed up, I can't even manage to move. Once our barrier method has been adequately put on, she reincorporates... she's still has that terrible look on her face... like if she was to eat me... what an ironic comment... thereupon, she leans against the table again, but now with her back turned on me... lastly, she places her head on her arms, like someone that gets settled to take a nap. She seems very relaxed and she smiles at me.

Decided, I get close and I took her by her waist, beginning our little and harmonic dance. The perspective of her back, her uncovered neck and her right cheek placed over the wood of the table while she tries to do the least noise possible, is very exciting for me. Some minutes after, the speed increased, and we were even... she seemed to also have issues trying to control herself, her right knee has already been put on the table and with the hand on the same side she touches herself at the same rhythm of my attacks.

Finally accepting that the celebration would be this way, I began to be more accommodating and delicate. With tenderness, I caressed her abdomen and I bent down over her back to kiss her neck and nape, she occasionally turned her face for our lips to meet.

"You should be more careful... if you turn your back on me that way, one day I could... get the wrong spot..." I whisper in her ear.

"If you would've gotten the wrong spot, I would've thrown you through the window..."

"Do you have any idea how stupid it is what we're doing...?" I ask her, lifting her torso towards me, to kiss her neck and caress her breasts.

"Enough for you to be here..." She let a little moan out.

"What would happen if Koizumi or Tachibana come?"

"I doubt it, they must be doing the same right now, in another place..."

"What about Nagato and Asakura?"

"I told them not to come... well, I told Ryoko, Yuki is so shy that she would've fainted if I explained it to her." So that's why Asakura behaved so strangely...

"What's that?" I ask her in a low voice... some steps can be heard from the hall...

Haruhi stayed quiet and paid attention to the sound outside the room... effectively, it seemed someone hung around the building.

"Maybe it's a professor... I hope it's not Mori..." With that said, she tries to get away from me... where the hell do you think you're going...? "Let me go..." She hisses seeing my resistance to let her separate from me.

This time it was me with the evil look. Instead of letting her go, I hugged her with even greater force and I kept on penetrating her. I've learned how to move to get a deep sigh out of her.

"I... imbecile... if we get caught... nnnhh, we would get expelled... you could get arrested..." She reproaches me as low as she can, the sound from the outside, although light, continues to be there.

"So then stop me..." Knowing she could try it when I said that, I picked her up by the waist lifting her feet from the ground... I continued doing her with her suspended in the air. "You, yourself said it to me some minutes ago... so enjoy it..."

"Bastard!" She yells at me... only a deaf person wouldn't hear such a scream... the person outside without a doubt captured it. "Then show me your courage..." She immediately tangles her legs around mine and starts to move with force, while allowing her moans to come out without any reservations. "F-faster!" I obey.

Some minutes after, my fatigue made itself obvious, my legs began to shake... not before mocking me, the clubroom's spokeswoman orders me to sit in the closest chair. I do it that way and an instant after, she sits on me... by this point, I notice her being hasty... the furtive visitor left some time ago, but she continues being infatuated with his presence to stimulate her mind... given our actual posture, she's the only one that moves and frenetically jumps on me... damn it, she looks so enchanting... like this, with such a magnificent panorama in front of me, I watch her reach the critical point... hearing her guttural laments and seeing her close her eyes while she raises her face is provoking a similar effect on me...

I irremediably must end up hurt in some way from these encounters. This time it's my thighs which receive the punishment, Haruhi, in her climax, buries her nails into them... damn it, I don't know how perverse what I'm about to say could sound, but this pain contributes to me reaching my own orgasm.

After some deep and agitated breathing, Haruhi leans her back against my chest and puts her head on my shoulder.

"That was good..." She tells me.

"You don't sound very convinced..."

"Well... the "last part" was missing..." Hearing her say this, I arched an eyebrow... "The juicy... part..." She continues. My face must've been of absolute stupidity, bored of my null sense of abstracting connection concepts, she sighs and summarizes: "Ejaculation, dumb ass...!" She lightly blushes before continuing. "It's so delicious when you do it inside of me..."

"Would've been convenient to do it today?" I question.

"No, it's fertile days and I don't want any surprises."

"Nymphomaniac..."

"Pervert…"

We spent the following minutes recovering our energy amongst kisses and hugs. It was a charming lunch.

Appropriately dressed, cleaned and having gotten rid of all the evidence, we came back to classroom 3-2 holding hands. My chest swells in pride still seeing the envious looks from my classmates... after all, I have as a girlfriend one of the most beautiful girls of this generation. Things are simply perfect... I can say I'm very happy...

And if it's like this...

...Why do I feel like something is out of place...?

Ah, whatever. If it's important, I will know it...

* * *

The end of the day quickly surprised us. Before noticing, the whole gang walked and merrily talked on our way to the literature clubroom. Nagato was at the head, walking with those little short steps, like a ballet ballerina, next to her, her inseparable Asakura received the impression that she had of Taniguchi. Koizumi and Tachibana exchanged comments about the welcoming speech that the school principal gave this year... they talked so politically that they would overshadow any demagogue. At the entrance of the old building, our old superiors already waited for us, Asahina and Tsuruya wore street clothes, they were the only ones that weren't real literature club members like us, they were part of the calligraphy club, even so, Haruhi managed a way to make them part of our adventures.

"We have to decide the destination of the next trip that the honorable literature club will take." Haruhi said cheerfully once we are all reunited around the big table in the room. "And you should immediately start adjusting your schedule, we need to take the most advantage of Golden Week, therefore, proposals are being taken!"

"My family has a farm in Nagasaki!" Tsuruya responds with an enthusiasm like Haruhi's. "I'll be free this year to make the arrangements... after all, I'm a _ronin_ now." She ends the comment with a big laugh.

"Eh... that's not a reason to be so proud, Tsuruya..." Asahina says ashamed, next to her, it seems she's also a _ronin_...

"Suzumiya?" Tachibana intervenes with her assistant's smile. "Could I invite someone else on the trip?"

"Oh!" This time is Asakura. "Be very careful, Koizumi! It seems you'll have a love rival this occasion..."

"Eh...? Oh, no! Nothing like that!" The girl answers shaking her hands in front of her face. "She's a friend who lives in my neighborhood, only that she goes to Kouyouen... she's a little shy girl, and I'd like to integrate her into our group..."

"Of course she can come!" Haruhi resumes. "The more the merrier!"

The next hour, Tsuruya spent describing her farm and the wonders of country life, doing a formidable job in selling us her school trip project... ironic... the only thing we don't do amongst the activities in the literature club is reading...

Outside, the afternoon is agreeable and bright, there's almost no clouds in the sky. I feel very, very comfortable.

And if that's the case...

...Why do I have the feeling that something is wrong...?

Not only with the situation in general... something is wrong with Haruhi... but... what is it...?

"You!" Haruhi brings me back from my far away lethargy. "Pay attention! What are you thinking about?"

"You...?" I responded pensive, still absorbed by the unrest that suddenly hits me.

As you know, my response wasn't mean to have a romantic desire, however it was interpreted in that way, and while Haruhi turned towards the window with her face painted on crimson, the concurrency left an ascendant exclamation out which grew like the flu virus contagion.

The reunion continued, the spirit was restored in little time and my uneasiness disappeared.

* * *

"That comment..." Haruhi began later. She was in the back seat of my bicycle on our way to the station. "Don't you think it was a little... inappropriate?"

I couldn't help to laugh. The same person that some hours ago incited me to have sex in a room in a school full of students and teachers is complaining about me. Although I'm not complaining about that, it results too ironic for me to ignore.

"I only said what I was thinking."

It was a peaceful and agreeable trip, the sunset already flooded the sky in an intense orange while the spring breeze softly threw the cherry petals on our path.

"Kyon?" She asks in a low voice a little after.

"Tell me." I responded. Close to a minute went by for her to brace up to talk.

"Are you happy?"

"Isn't it evident?"

"If it was, I wouldn't be asking, stupid..."

This time, it was me who stayed quiet... I needed to do a small recount to adequately answer that question... let's see: at my seventeen, I'm a guy with good health; although I don't live in opulence like Tsuruya, I'm not missing anything; I have an integrated family that loves me; I'm not such a bad student, and I enjoy an acceptable popularity; I have friends, a little peculiar, perhaps, but good, sincere and that worry about me... on top of all of this, I have as a girlfriend a girl that not only stands out for her great beauty, but also for her enormous intelligence, competitiveness, charisma and eccentricity.

"I think that my level of happiness is acceptable." I resolve. "What about you...? Are you happy?"

"Yes... but..." Just at that moment we arrived at the station, point where we separated so she could take the train.

"But what?"

"I'm afraid... I don't want this happiness to end... I don't want anyone around me to suffer."

"Then, you could try to be a little more accommodating and avoid those strong temper outbursts you have... that would make me happy..." She doesn't respond. She just looks at the floor, absent, while her right-hand plays with the straps of her backpack and the left-hand lays immobile on her side. I don't see her depressed often, and the truth is I don't like seeing her like this. "Haruhi..." I took her chin so she could look at me in the eyes. "It's not your responsibility... we all make decisions and we all must be responsible about them, so don't break your head thinking in how to make them happier or more miserable... that's a personal choice."

"Are you responsible of your own decisions?"

"And I have to deal with their outcome every day... like having talked to you for the very first time."

"Ass." I can see how little by little her face recovers her natural light. Despite her worriless and egocentric screen, she's always looking out for everyone. That will make her an excellent wife and mother... I think I'm going too far... "Did you decide what you'll study?" She asks me already recovered.

"I have no idea."

"That's unacceptable! Next year you'll be a college student!"

"And you? You know what you'll do?"

"Of course! I'll be a police officer!"

This time my laugh was out of my control, it took me half a minute to recover. Opening my eyes again, Haruhi already had a hard face and arms crossed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of it..."

"It doesn't matter... history will agree with me at the end." She responds lightly resented. "I'm going home." She turned around walking towards the entrance of the station. Just when she's about to enter, she notices she forgot something... she undid the walked way until staying in front of me again, unlike this morning, this time she hugs me by the neck, kissing me with more enthusiasm and allowing me to delight me with the texture of her tongue. "See you tomorrow."

The return home should be like every day since I can remember, without major setbacks, I'd arrive to have whatever my mother had prepared for dinner, I'd help my sister with her homework to then do mine, I'd watch a little television with dad, who eventually would ask me how my day at school was and would try to again have that embarrassing talk with me about Haruhi and "what a boy and a girl do when they love each other..." I'm sorry dad, the subject has been discussed and overcome...

And it was going to be like this... but it wasn't. The front tire of my bicycle stopped in short, provoking my weight to be thrown ahead; going downhill, the impulse made me make a full cart wheel turn with even the bike, falling both dismally. It was a very hard hit, but not so much as to make me pass out. I have some scratches in my hands and elbows, and my knees hurt... How did I fall like this...? Recovering from it, I walked to the spot where my bike failed... I noticed on my way that no one shared the street with me... the sun already had some minutes of hiding, but part of its light could still be perceived. Arriving at the spot, I almost fell again. There was a thread, if not a very fine one, it was very difficult to see with this light, it had been placed in such a way that it crossed the street from side to side... it is a very bad prank, someone could really get hurt... miserable delinquents...

* * *

What... the hell...?

Remember, remember... I was going on my bike, on my way home... then, some vandals had set a cruel trap that made my bike overturn... I can still feel the pain from the fall... then I reviewed how it was that all this happened... and an instant later...

I raised my gaze. I was seated in the clubroom, in one of the chairs... there's something weird here... I don't remember that mirror... because I see my reflection in it... I try to get up, but I discover that my hands are tied behind my back and my ankles are tied to the legs of the chair... wait a moment... my reflection is wrong... he's not dressed in the school uniform like me and, while my hands are on my back, forcing me to keep it straight against the back of the chair, my reflection sits more relaxed, with his arms supported on his knees.

"No, I'm not your reflection." He tells me... OK, I'm officially scared...

"Who are you?" That's what I managed to ask. The night has fallen already, I have no idea how much time has passed.

"A very interesting question." The impostor responds in a chilly precise imitation of my voice. "I'm asking you the same question... do you know who you are?"

It's a strange conversation... assuming I'm in front of my doppelganger, what I say won't have that much importance...

"Why am I here?" I ask trying to hide my fear.

"I brought you. There's something I want to talk to you about. I think I was finally able to catch your attention."

"And in what way!" I told him with my voice charged with sarcasm while I look at my bindings. "I suppose you won't take a "no" as an answer, correct?"

"I'm glad you understand it."

"I'm glad it makes you glad." We both laugh in the face of the stupidity of our arguments... such a strange situation... "Why don't you untie me and we talk?"

"Not yet." He tells me serene. "You first must answer one question, based on the answer you give me, I'll decide whether I let you free or not."

"What's the question?"

My double crosses his arms and stretches his legs over his chair while looks at me with curiosity. Some seconds passed without taking his eyes off me, until he made me feel uncomfortable. He finally resolved:

"What do you feel for Haruhi?"

"Excuse me?"

He got up and walked directly towards me, being close enough, the much miserable slapped me.

"Concentrate! This is perhaps the most important reasoning of all your life!"

I looked at him with reproach while he went back to his seat, however, the shake helped me concentrate. I did a quick balance of my actual situation and I assessed with more detail the problem that afflicted me. Until some minutes ago, I had a calm and happy life, nothing seemed too difficult or grave... then this bad copy of me appeared and... wait a moment... there was something... it has been bothering me all day... and it was precisely about Haruhi... my freedom, and perhaps my life, depend on the strange question that this imitator has asked me... perhaps I should pay more attention to that fact...

"Think calmly about it..." He indicates seeing me reflect. "Go to the past, to the same day you met her and try to arrive to today... then question yourself... what's Haruhi to you?"

I was about to respond: "she's my girlfriend," but my intuition warned me it could cost me another hit, however, the question asked had a very ample spectrum of responses and nuances, it couldn't be answered easily and in just one sentence... What do I feel for her? What is she to me? Although I don't remember having asked myself those questions before, something in my interior tells me this isn't the first time that I face this dilemma... damn it... that feeling is there again... like if I had remembered I didn't turn the stove off while I'm in a plane in the middle of a trip... it's maddening... the gesture in my face must be manifesting my restlessness, since the other "me" looks at me with even more interest.

"It can't be that you're this slow." He reproaches seeing my confusion. "I'll try to help you..." He scratched his nape, searching for a good question. "Let's try with this: Do you like her?" I was about to respond yes, but he anticipated my answer, stopping me with a hand raised high. "You must do as I indicated... before answering... think in retrospective."

I listened to his indication and I tried to go more deeply... Do I like her?

I think it's pointless to say she's a very attractive young girl. Her face, even with that eternal bothersome expression and those curious long eyebrows, it's very beautiful. She's a natural athlete, which give her a simply blessed physic. Even so, I have ignored the strong sexual charge with which I relate her physic, I think it underlays a deeper question... if I do like her... why do I like her? Let's see... short hair isn't my thing... I mean, I find long hair particularly attractive... in fact, when I met her, her magnificent dark brown hair bathed with grace her back, and that simply made her so much more beautiful... I have the feeling I saw her again with long hair, but... when...? She hasn't let her hair grow since then... perhaps I saw a picture... I think that in the physical aspect, there's nothing else to search for... let's see the mental aspect... damn it, how didn't I see it before...? Her character in general is horrible... if it wasn't because I'm linked to her, she would surely see me with as much or more disdain which she sees the rest of the people... she's abusive, mocking, dominant, overfamiliar, disrespecting, selfish and egocentric... she's got her virtues, of course, she's intelligent, astute, sharp, joyful, decided and eventually, very eventually she's accommodating, emphatic and charitable... if I put all these elements in a scale... the result is chilling... I think that... I don't like her. How could I like someone like this...?

"That was weird..." I whisper to my double, while the satisfaction begins to illuminate his expression.

"Well... do you know now who you are? Realizing what Haruhi is to you is the key."

"I am..." I responded giving him my name. He lowered his gaze and massaged his nasal septum with resignation.

"OK, let's go deeper... are you in love with her?"

In love... that'd have to be a "yes" ... but let's see, perhaps the response to the being in love part is more in me than in her. In other words: being in love is a mental stage in which, any person (I) gets infatuated with the virtues, whether real or imaginative of one special person (Haruhi). And not only that, one idealizes that person, completely ignoring her flaws and constantly facing disillusion when discovering the lack of perfection of the object of his affection. When these situations happen, the person in love will search by any means necessary to mold that other person to cover his ideal expectative... being in love is a selfish act which pretends to make an idealized person into an object of satisfaction for him... I don't feel that for Haruhi... to start off, I don't idealize her, I know who she is and what she does, I'm conscious of her virtues and much more conscious of her flaws... and despite that, I wouldn't try by any means to change her... the answer is "no" ... I'm not in love with Haruhi... while I arrived at this reasoning, there was an extremely bothersome buzz in my head... it kept increasing as time went by, I wonder if he can also hear it.

"It's complicated..." I said this time.

"Do you know who you are?"

"No... I'm not sure..."

"You know what the following logic question will be... it's in you to discover it and to arrive at the truth..."

The following logic question... in reality it's the first question... what do I feel for Haruhi...? It was very cleared that I can't be in love with her... she's not an ideal object that I can acquire to satisfy my primitive emotional or carnal needs, I can't modify her at my wishes' whim... I can demand her to be the way I want her to be... I respect her too much for that... Like her? No way... she's got two types of flaws: the ones that bother me and the ones I despise... now that I think about it in detail, either Asahina or Nagato, and of course Asakura I could like more... because of their beauty, character and charm respectively... but Haruhi... no, I don't like her... Damn it! I don't even get along with her! However, ... I worry that she can be a more balanced person... I find myself cooperating with her crazy scenarios to motive her spirit and she never loses that spark so elevated that she always has... despite constantly contravening with her own behavior parameters, I hope, with all my soul that her effort is crown with success, her happiness makes me happy and her frustrations perturb me... I worry about her mental health and I eventually yell at her to avoid she goes off the way too much... like the time I almost hit her at Tsuruya's house... wait a minute! Is that a memory or fantasy...? I will clear it soon, I must concentrate... then... what do I feel for Haruhi? I cannot say what it is that motivates to get up every morning, however, from two years ago until today she's an integral part of my days and my life. I couldn't conceive a world where she isn't doing stupid things and dragging me into them... I feel like if one day she disappeared I'd go into a terrible depression... it sounds odd, but I also feel like that's more a memory than a figurative idea... and there are times... times in which I simply get lost inside those enormous and precious amber eyes... like that Thursday night... under the moon light... in... our house...? times in which I feel the only purpose of my life is to procure her... is to listen to her crazy ideas and to fight with her... I think I'm falling into a language vice... stop hiding it, damn it... you arrived at the conclusion several sentences ago... just say it... although it isn't easy... I have the feeling in the same moment I carve it onto a rock, something will end, it's like if I was at the edge of an uncertainty abysm... damn it, have some courage! JUST SAY IT!

What do I feel for Haruhi Suzumiya? What is she to me?

I took a deep breath and I looked my own eyes in the person in front of me. I had arrived at my conclusion.

"I love her. She's the person with whom I always want to be."

I was right... as soon as the truth was revealed to me, the other truth fell on top of me like a tsunami... my love for that girl wasn't present in that perfect world in which I found myself. It had been forged in the real world, in my knowledge about her and her true nature, in the trust that an alien, a time traveler and a guy with powers had deposited in me... it grew from the adventures we were involved in together and in the danger so many times, in our time spent together and the strange way in which our personalities mixed, it got confirmed in that recurrent dream that made her a more mature person... it was created in our world... not in this closed space that pretends being the reality...

The most overwhelming headache that I've ever felt hit me while I understood what was going on. My true memories mixed with the implanted in the closed space, exceedingly confusing me. Five minutes had to pass for my brain to finish setting the pieces in their corresponding place... Koizumi, Asahina and Nagato were about to die... maybe they already did... darkness surrounded me while Asahina-Ni crashed my body... then... is this a closed space or finally heaven? No, it couldn't be heaven... if it was, he wouldn't be here...

Kyon-Ni.

"It took you more time than what I expected." He tells me circling the chair where he has me captured. Seconds after, the insulating tape that ties my hands is cut off.

Instinctively I took my hands to my head and I began to massage my temples with force...

"Why are you here...?" I asked... initially, his presence bothered me, now I simply cannot understand it.

"Because you needed something to make your memories go off so you could back to being you."

"It's not that I'm not thankful, but... why are you helping me?"

Kyon-Ni walked until staying in front of the window and observed absently the empty installations in our school. Perhaps the reason was the light or the angle in which I looked at him, but he seems much older than me. His expression detonated an immense exhaustion.

"I arrived at the same conclusion as you long time ago. I assumed that my destiny would be tied to Haruhi's (Ni) forever and I took the role happily... however... unlike you, I wasn't as responsible to correct or yell at Haruhi (Ni) when she fell in vices or she exceeded her behaviors. In many ways, all and each of the tragedies that our brigade has committed, are, in reality, my responsibility. When I tried to take back control again, it was too late. Because of us, more specifically, because of me, millions of people have died, we have destroyed full realities... it's simply too much guilt for me... and even knowing all that... I continue lacking the courage to stop Haruhi (Ni)... that's why I'm helping you... I need you to conclude once and for all the titanic error I made by loving that girl. Being you and I the same person, I believe that part of the responsibility is yours.

"That sounds like a big cowardice."

"Of course, ... you have something I don't... you love her in a way, that even if you hurt her in the process, you'll know to orient her to avoid she becomes the monster in which apathy turned my Haruhi (Ni). That not only talks about your love, but about the very high degree of trust you deposit in her and in her good judgement."

"Assuming I'm understanding well what you try to tell me..." I said while I finished ripping off the tape that captured my feet. "What is it that you want me to do?"

Kyon-Ni seemed to debate himself a moment. Then, he turned towards me with his gaze full of determination.

"Wake up Haruhi from this dream, take her back to the real-world and... finish with the threat that Haruhi (Ni) represents..."

"And how you do pretend I do all that...? I don't even know how to get us out of the closed space..."

"You just need to show her this place isn't real... I suppose you know her better than me, you'll find the way... when it comes the second part..." He searched among his clothes. On the table, he left the object that was stolen from me in Gunkan-Jima. I was left speechless. The survival knife. "... you know what must be done."

With that said, he began to walk towards the clubroom door, leaving me frozen.

"Wait!" I call him confused. "Are you asking me to kill the person you love?" I ask him because I know what he's feeling... I don't know if I could fulfill such a request.

"No... I'm asking you to kill the monster that caused this problem... she isn't Haruhi... at least, she isn't the Haruhi I loved once."

Without mediating another word, he left the place closing the door behind him. It took me some minutes to assimilate all the information I had just received and when the idea to go searching for him crossed my mind, I imagined that regardless of how much I searched for him, I couldn't find him... better in a way, it would be a distraction... and there's work to do... it truly is a shame, I could've gotten used to this dreamy world and to this happiness, although ephemeral, which could've been provided. But this isn't my world, not even Haruhi's... this is her escape from reality... forgive me, Haruhi, but this dream must end... yes, the world is dangerous and scary, but... you won't be facing it alone. I'll be with you.

* * *

My bicycle scandalously impacted against the sidewalk. I have lost count of how many times I've done the same... my breathing is very agitated, but even so I ran until the entrance of the station. It's around midnight. Some steps before arriving, a relief hit me seeing the people I had called. Asahina came in some pajamas that I couldn't completely see, since they were under a heavy coat. Nagato had on some two-piece pajamas as well and she covered herself with a small sweater and a scarf, the respiration through this made her glasses fog constantly. Koizumi... does this guy sleep dressed like this? Regardless of the time and the deafening of my petition, the guy looked impeccably dressed in casual clothes. Haruhi, next to all of them, had the sympathetic yellow pajamas...

"Could you tell us what your damn problem is?" Haruhi asks me once I caught up to them, while I put my hands on my knees trying to recover some of my breath.

"Haruhi... we must go back..."

"Excuse me?" She asks in between confused and irritated.

"To our world... we must go back and expel the SOS-Ni Brigade..."

"Are you on drugs?"

"No!" I tell her while I hold her shoulders. "I'm not on drugs! I can remember! You must remember too! We must go back and save the people we love!"

"Let me go! What the hell is wrong with you?" She complains, while struggles with me to set herself free. I can see some fear in her eyes.

"Please, Haruhi... remember! The SOS Brigade...! Nagato!" I say directing myself to the girl with glasses, whom jumps hearing my voice. She looks more scared than Haruhi. "Remember! Remember the Data Integration Entity! You must remember your extraterrestrial origins! Remember how Nagato-Ni assassinated Asakura!"

"What...? Asakura...? No... I don't know what you're talking about..." The alien responds more scared if that was possible. I didn't care and I continued.

"Asahina! Don't you want to go back to your time? Don't you want to see the people you love?"

"My time?" She asked while the fear seemed to be taking her to the edge of tears.

"You're scaring Mikuru, imbecile!" Haruhi reproaches me. I didn't care.

"Koizumi! Damn it, from amongst everybody, you! Remember the big sacrifice that Mori, Arakawa and the Tamaru made... the Agency...!"

Koizumi didn't say anything... he limited himself to smile without knowing what to do or say.

"That's enough, Kyon!" Haruhi begins holding my wrists to make me let her go, but my hands are hooked to her shoulders stronger than she expected.

"Exactly! It's enough...! Remember Haruhi! You can make wishes come true! YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER!"

She looked at me confused once again... after that she stopped fighting and we spent some seconds the five of us in silence.

"I'm going home... we'll talk about this tomorrow with more calm." She says with an authority that doesn't allow any doubts. Without mediating another word, she begins to walk towards the inside of the station.

Is that all? My little creditability made me lose the chance to save our world...? There must be something... something that makes her real self wake up... while my mind frenetically runs searching for that answer, the other club members say good bye to me, although I don't respond... How do I show Haruhi that this is nothing more than a closed space, her way to avoid reality? That so painful reality that I'm forced to send her back to... How do I make her see this is just a dream...?

"HARUHI!" Eureka! She turns with a furious face. "Just do one thing for me before leaving...! If it doesn't work, you can go home and I swear I won't bother you with my paranoia again."

The rest of the brigade also stopped their march, expectant to the scene that developed.

"And what is it?" She says daring. It's my last opportunity... please, make it work...

"Cover your nose and try to breath..."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

"You really are crazy... what a stupi..." She did as I indicated... the surprise hit her when she noticed the air passed without problems... the block she self-imposed when creating these close spaces. "How is that possible?"

Turning around, I noticed a similar surprise among the other three guys, whom had imitated Haruhi. She looked at me astonished...

"That is... this isn't..."

I couldn't finish my sentence Haruhi drowned a scream and fell on her knees holding her head. She was having her awakening the same way I had mine... it isn't an agreeable experience... that horrible combination of memories and feelings, as much as real as the ones crated here... I immediately went ahead and held her in my arms. Koizumi, for his part, didn't have such a violent reaction, but supported his left hand on his forehead and breathed with difficulty... he was also remembering! With Asahina, the panorama was very different. As soon as she came into contact with her memories, her face lost all color and fell seated on the ground with eyes closed, I ignore if she fainted... Koizumi got close to help her.

And in the face of this horizon, the most dramatic reaction was Nagato's... her human memories created in this place united to the registries from her database... she spent some seconds with her hands on her face, bending the position of her glasses... after, a deep lament crossed her lips in a frequency I've never heard in her almost inaudible voice.

"A… Asakura!"

At the mention of the name, think tears came out her eyes... she was finally dedicating a crying to her fallen guardian angel today... I imagine what she must be experiencing... there's also an Asakura here, but she's a fake... realizing that, Nagato must be feeling she lost her a second time.

Several minutes went by. The brigade gradually began to recover their composure. Haruhi supported her forehead on my chest, some seconds after I helped her reincorporate. Her eyes had again the lucidity that characterized them.

"Thank you." She tells me at the end.

"It's time to go back... it's a nice dream, but this isn't the way I want to live..."

We both turned towards the alien, the time traveler and the esper. They had also recovered their consciousness of who they really were.

"Does everyone wish to go back?" Haruhi asked without separating from me. There was a general agreement... "Yuki... could you help me?"

Nagato took her glasses off and threw them onto the ground. She finished drying her tears off and her monotone voice went back to her lips:

"Analysis of artificial reality patrons completed. It is possible to create a breach and go back to the original reality from which we proceed. If there exists cooperation between my capacity to alter data and yours to create it, not only we will be able to go back, but we can create alteration that allow us additional advantages."

Haruhi took my hand with force and extended the other hand towards Nagato, I did the same with my free hand towards Asahina, and they both towards Koizumi.

"Let's go back home then." And with that order, an extremely intense white light began to surround us...

Wait a little longer... we'll go back and we'll finish the job... that is our reality... Ours! You managed to infringe us, but we'll go back... And you'll regret having tried to conquer us!

 **Chapter 12.**

 **End.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** It was my priority to confuse the reader when he/her got to this chapter. I really hope I did it to you, and this is the preamble to the big finish. Make me know what do you think about all the thing this far, and be prepared for the end. Thanks for reading! Until the update!

 **Translator Notes:** Here it is guy! I hope I didn't make you wait too long. I bet you were confused when reading this chapter. I remember the first time I read it, I didn't know what was going on... I thought pepsipez had made mistake. Haha. What do you think though? I thought it was masterfully written, plus the way things developed... I don't know how pepsipez did it, but I was so excited when reading the end. Still a couple chapters left to go. I'm sure you want to know who this whole thing will end... I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Until next chapter!


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13.**

Those eyes would be able to undo me in any situation. Ambar eyes, lit up in hot white, capable of killing with a certain "evil eye" ... those eyes have the same intensity as Haruhi's eyes... it must be because they share the same unknown and mysterious nature. Haruhi-Ni undresses me with that killer's gaze having me at least a meter away from her, knife risen for a second time.

"You won't do it... you don't have what's needed." She tells me, immovable. I despise admitting it, but she's right. "Lower the knife, we both know you won't use it against me."

Damn it... this time I'm really ruined... we all are thanks to my indecision. Without having a very clear picture of what will happen next, I lowered my hand.

Forgive me... I failed everyone... forgive me, Haruhi... after all, it seems I'm not worthy of you choosing me.

And is it like this how everything will end?

* * *

"It's really a relief that you became aware of everything and took us out of that closed space..." Koizumi tells me. We are both seated in the posterior seat in Arakawa's black taxi. We travel on a highway, but I can't recognize it, I can only see the concrete and the illuminated sky in bright white, like it was covered with clouds extremely charged with the sunlight. "I know you don't like talking about it, but... what made you react?"

"You're right... I don't like talking about it."

The esper laughed and turned towards the window.

"I think that I know somehow... we all know. It was evident from long time ago. The people that know say that love isn't something to say, it's simply something to feel. However, it would've been a big lack of judgement having it suggested to you before now. But now that you know it, or better said, that finally accepted it, there exists no problem that I express my theory."

"What theory could fit in here...?" I respond. "You, yourself, had just expressed it, it's not something to say."

"You're right. I only want you to know that I'm very happy for you both. Frankly, I believe it couldn't have been any other way... and I feel this time we really have a chance to win. Even so... if I die in what comes soon, I'd like if..."

"Enough! No one will die today, I can assure you... and if you want to ask me to name my dog after you or something like that, forget it." I tell him with a strong voice, but without being able to avoid smiling.

Koizumi appeased his gesture and leaned relaxed against the back of the seat:

"It's exactly the response I expected from you... it's a true pleasure to have you as my friend, I hope you feel the same about me."

* * *

"This is a new opportunity to save the place I come from, and I can have it thanks to you." Asahina expresses to me while we walk together on the river's streambed in our locality, in the park. The time is undefined, no one else walks here besides us. The sky is just as white and bright. "This time I'll give all I've got, I won't be afraid again... and that is also thanks to you."

"Thanks to me?" I ask. It's simply impossible to talk with this girl and not being in a good mood.

"You had just overcome one of the most difficult battles: you faced yourself and your ideas and feelings, with such courage that despite yourself, you accepted the truth and had the aplomb and responsibility to bring us all back. That's simply inspiring." She stopped a moment and put her hands together behind her back while raising her face towards the tree tops. "Being very honest, I feel great envy for Suzumiya right now... but at the same time, I feel very happy for how everything ended. When I met her, I thought that she really was a capricious girl to whom life had given her a power simply too big to control... but with time, I began to think that in reality, that power was given to her because she had an enormous potential... and you are that which can make that so immense potential be well directed. History books talked about it, but I never imagined things to be this way."

"History books?"

" _Classified Information."_

* * *

"The flux of data that is occurring at this moment is of great interest to the DIE. Even for me it results a mystery that an affluent of data so impressive is happening while it mixes with the noise that Suzumiya Haruhi and you produced since some time ago."

"Noise?" I ask in the face of Nagato's explanation. Curiously, it doesn't seem so confusing now. We are each at a side of her little coffee table, in her apartment. I believe it's the first time I see the interior of this place during the daylight.

"The noise produced among humans that you called "love." Very frequently, between parents and their offspring, less usually in relationships without blood relations. Extremely atypical in the type that Suzumiya Haruhi and you have developed. The information that is being produced during said phenomena is overcoming the levels of analysis of the DIE, and our interest centers in the fact she could have the key of the auto evolution that we have followed for so long."

"It would be such an event if you could implement it in our lives." I respond to the alien. Generally, when we talk of feelings or emotions, she looks as confused as me when she talks about her technicalities. This time, she doesn't seem to unaware of what I tell her either.

"It could be extremely beneficial. The mistakes that I've experienced along the time in contact with Suzumiya Haruhi and with you, have been product of a bad canalization of the information obtained from you both..." She stopped momentarily, like reflecting on what she'd say next. "From the moment I met you both up until today, I thought that errors continued accumulating in my database... however, the supposedly erroneous information was, in reality, what you called "learning" ... very similar to the one I acquire with the reading of your books, but recrudescent and harder to interpret. And among the things I've learned from my connivance with you all is gratitude. That feeling you express when you have the chance and which Suzumiya disdains when doing things without any interest to receive something in exchange. Thanks for everything, personally I have the wish to stay all the time I can with you all before reincorporating into the DIE."

* * *

I turned in my chair... the seat of always, the second to last before the end of the row and I leaned my back against the window, looking at the seat behind mine and its occupant. Haruhi, with her chin supported on her right hand, looked through the window flooded with the white light from the exterior sky. Only the two of us were in the classroom.

"What are you thinking?" I ask her.

"In the curious way that everything resulted at the end." She responds with her voice charged with melancholy.

"Yeah... from so many good catches, it had to be me... even today I keep the hope that our encounter was a coincidence."

"Probably... I have another theory... I think if it wouldn't have been you who talked to me first... I had kept on discharging everyone else... one by one... until finally, one day, I would've found you irremediably."

"I'm not so sure about that... I'm the most normal of the guys, there's nothing that makes me special and different from the rest."

"Stop being so stupid for a moment." She tells me turning towards me. "Anyone that would've had to get involved in my projects would've ended running away without thinking twice, or would've ended agreeing with me without refuting just for fear."

"At least you admit you are frightening."

"That's one of the things why it had to be you... you don't concentrate only in one part of me... you didn't stay with the impression that I'm pretty, or hateful, or any other thing... you accepted the whole package..." While she says that, she's seated in the very small folding chair with the yellow megaphone in her hands and the arm band with the legend "Ultra Director" in her left arm. I, at some meters ahead of her, hold the video camera negotiated for Asahina's work.

"How do you know I can't be like that with other people?" I ask her.

"From the way you treat others... there are things you don't accept from Koizumi, other things you'd like to change about Mikuru, although you don't express it, and even things that you prefer ignoring about Yuki. Although I don't like admitting it, you know me better than my own parents or even myself... and even knowing all the flaws and problems of character, which I know aren't just a few or small... you didn't leave. On the contrary... You stayed and accepted the challenge... Don't you remember?"

With that said, we were in the bench under the shelter from the tree of jacaranda near my parents' house. I repeated the same words from that day in which Haruhi discovered the truth about her power:

"I'll do it despite yourself. Whether you like it or not, I will remain by your side, without caring if you throw me out, insult me or hit me..."

"With all that... do you really think it could've been someone else?"

"And what if it was you at the beginning whom looked for me and found me and not the other way around?"

"Do you remember I can make wish come true...?" She tells me smiling. "I wished someone arrived, accepted me and stayed with me always... someone like that John Smith I met in middle school... and that one could only be you... we were created in this world for some reason I don't know yet, but the fact we are together proves it must be this way."

"It sounds too... cheesy..." I respond while I raise the umbrella we share under the rain, that far winter day.

"Then, if that's it..." She snatches the umbrella and takes off running. "You can still regret it!"

She turns around and sticks her tongue out to me while putting her finger under her right eye.

I wouldn't regret it... if life gave me the opportunity to repeat the last two years, without any doubts I'd make the same mistakes... I would only do it faster.

* * *

The pleasuring sensation of emptiness began to disappear. The white light that surrounded us was becoming less intense at each instant and a blinking after, I could feel the crunching of the debris under my feet. Haruhi and Nagato had done the miracle, and not only had they brought us back to our dimension, they brought us inside the closed space created by Haruhi-Ni, barely an instant after our first battle had ended... the power of these two girls together simply transcends time and space...

As soon as I opened my eyes, I could see the SOS-Ni Brigade reunited at some meters from us, Haruhi-Ni looked at us with incredulity, the expression of her footmen wasn't very different.

Us five let go of our hands, but we weren't the only ones in that place. Behind our backs was the whole SOS Battalion, even those that had stayed as backups in the quarters... Asahina (adult), Mr. Arakawa, even Suou was again enfolded in her Kouyouen uniform and again she looked like just another rock in the background. As if all had been prey of an Epiphany, they seem to have complete conscious of what they were doing there...

"It's impossible..." Asahina-Ni mumbled with her contorted face... "I killed that bastard!" She yelled while pointing at me. "I watched him stop breathing! I made sure his heart stopped beating!"

"And no one can breathe under water..." Koizumi-Ni added, as if his deduction were the brightest in the world... idiot.

"The corruption in the data base of my dimensional variant exceeded the limit of restoration..." Nagato-Ni said, blinking in confusion.

"Then well job everyone!" Haruhi-Ni complemented with her voice charged with sarcasm.

Kyon-Ni rummaged among his clothes... he must've noticed that the survival knife wasn't with him any longer, but in the magnetic case that Fujiwara had gifted me. Except for him and for Haruhi-Ni, the other three looked tired, wounded and uneasy... we weren't even dirty... the advantage was ours this time. Trying to embolden herself, Haruhi-Ni began to speak like this:

"You really have managed the unthinkable... this time things are getting very interesting...!"

"SHUT UP!" Haruhi ordered ahead of us. Even the sea surrounding us seems scared in the face of her aplomb. "This isn't a game anymore."

Haruhi-Ni swallowed saliva full of nervous while retreating her step.

"Kill them..." She ordered, trying to hide her fear.

She took the hand of Kyon-Ni and tried to reach Asahina-Ni to get them out of the esplanade with the help of her TPDD. To her disgrace, our own Asahina (small) appeared in the precise moment, giving a well certain punch to the abdomen of her counterpart, taking her out of the reach of her brigade leader when throwing her several dozens of meters against one of the constructions.

She requested the assistance of her alien then, whom immediately created a pair of energy fields, one protecting the girl with the purple headband and another one around herself, who was already being attacked simultaneously by Nagato, Kimidori, my old professor and Suou among other interfaces. The combined power of the aliens forced her to raise her hands for the first time since I've met her... I must make a special mention about Suou's power... I'm not saying it was greater than the other interfaces, she simply looked different and seemed to manage to disconcert Nagato-Ni.

Koizumi-Ni already flew at that moment, close to a dozen of espers came out to his encounter and again he tried to search for refuge in the sea waters that surrounded the Gunkan-Jima. I admit that Mori strongly got my attention, she looked like a dancer while she flew with elegancy and did quick and accurate attacks against the idiot.

Asahina (Adult) got close with serene steps to Haruhi and I and touched our shoulder. We reappeared an instant after inside one of the buildings around the esplanade where the fierce battle developed.

"Please, Suzumiya..." The adult version of our time traveler began. "Stay here while the battle ends." She turned towards me then. "I will try to get you as close as possible to them..."

"Understood." I responded. "Please, take care of Haruhi while I take care of it..."

"I don't need a sitter..." Haruhi reclaimed.

"I know... I just don't want you to pointlessly expose yourself."

She reluctantly took my advice and I assented to Asahina (Adult) to get me close to my objective. As I utilized more and more the TPDD, the more familiar I felt with the dizziness and now it didn't affect me. My feet touched the ground of the esplanade and only then I could see the true dimension of the battle that was developing in the island. Koizumi-Ni, up high in the sky, wasn't getting any mercy from the espers of the two agencies, who without a qualm, distributed all kinds of shots of energy; it's the first time I saw him so vulnerable while wasting the almost unlimited resources he had. Asahina-Ni, mustering the last energy he had left, indiscriminately dispatched every time traveler who crossed her path... I must admit she's an impressing fighter, despite the exhaustion and the frank disadvantage, she was whom looked the most difficult to submit. Nagato-Ni, at several hundred meters from where I am, lays immobile with a knee on the floor while she tries by any means to defend herself from her multiple adversaries, all this while she protects Haruhi-Ni. This time I don't have at my reach the camouflage that Kimidori put on me last time, so it's completely based on my cunning to get close to them and... do what I must do.

And while I hide among the debris to not be seen by my prey, a scene at the distance catches my attention:

Having momentarily left out of the fight her adversaries, Asahina-Ni again has a hand to hand with our tea angel... once again, there's no disappearances, and the island seems to shake at the beat of their blows. It looked like a just battle until in an agile movement, Asahina-Ni places both hands over the neck or our Asahina (Small)... indignant I noticed she was using a nervous stimulator, provoking her that horrible pain to our agent from the future while trying to strangle her... I felt the impulse to go help her, but a soft hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"No... your mission is another one..." Asahina (Adult) tells me, hidden next to me.

"She's going to kill her..." I responded.

"She won't. Watch what will happen next..."

I did as she indicated and I turned towards the contestants... what I saw was simply amazing...

Despite the unimaginable pain that had Asahina (Small) on her knees, he firmly took Asahina-Ni's wrists... little by little she began to get up, changing the triumphant gesture of her opponent for a face of absolute incredibility... she was defeating her even in the face of such a torture! When she was completely erected, she separated the hands of Asahina-Ni from her neck and gained momentum. The forehead of Asahina (Small) impacted Asahina-Ni's face with such a force that even at the distance that separated us I could hear her nose break. Asahina-Ni fell on her back and reincorporated half way, trying to contain her nasal hemorrhage with her left hand.

"BITCH!" Wow... I had never heard a bad word in the delicate voice of Asahina (Small)... she truly must be angry... and she didn't have enough with that...

The next moment, and without giving her the chance to recover, a _Mikuru-Beam_ dragged the crashed girl at least the distance equivalent to a football field, until a building stopped her. I doubt that killed her, but without any doubts it will keep her at the margin some minutes. Trying to avoid surprises, Asahina walks towards the construction, a moment later, Fujiwara and the other users of the TPDD unite with her.

Assenting in conformity to Asahina (Adult), I bespoke to her again the safety of Haruhi and following my improvised technique of infiltration, I continued searching my objectives. Meanwhile, I hear something like a blast in the sky, similar to one when a steel rope that supports bridges had snapped. Turning towards the sky I can see that the green bubble that cover the idiot had finally been destroyed and Koizumi-Ni is left at the mercy of the attacks from the other espers... give him a lesson, he deserves it...

At some few hundred of meters, I can see Haruhi-Ni, anxious, back to back with Kyon-Ni, guarding I don't get close... her back is towards me, vigilant, my counterpart sees me... but he doesn't tell on me... he's really helping me... despite having the backup from him, I can't get close enough without getting hurt by the energy shield that Nagato-Ni imposed on them... there must be another way...

I turned towards the part of the island where the aliens fight... of course! Once Nagato-Ni is defeated, there won't be protection for this pair of impostors... it's a unique opportunity among a thousand...

"Asahina! Koizumi! Attack Nagato-Ni!" I yelled at my brigade partners, catching their attention, but at the same time revealing my position.

Just as I expected, Koizumi began to throw energy attacks from his position in the sky, while Asahina materialized herself as close to Nagato-Ni as her energy field allowed it. They're going to submit her... and when that happens... this steel will perforate her heart... I must do it... for everyone here...

The assassin's moral dilemma... good place and moment to feel it, right? On one hand, I have the enormous responsibility to procure my world and the people in it that I love... for Koizumi and his organization, which without its backup, we definitely wouldn't have come so far, and Haruhi wouldn't have integrated so well the way she did it despite the forecast of her so voluble personality, next to him, Tachibana, who in the beginning I felt as an enemy, but who in so many ways has demonstrated a big team spirit, the same as her organization... for Asahina, whom I'd protect with my life without doubting it an instant, and her adult version, whom although sometime seemed manipulating and little deserving of trust, right now had absolutely gained all my respect... even the bastard Fujiwara didn't seem such a bad person after all... and although without a doubt he'll go back to whatever plans he had before becoming our ally, perhaps we'll give him the opportunity to try it. And if there was someone among all these people that deserved my support, gratitude and trust, that was Nagato. Besides Haruhi, she's the one that has gone through the greatest difficulties. She's been the only one, besides Haruhi and I that has had to lose her family, and I believe that from out of the five, she's the one that's matured the most, becoming more human every day... perhaps she'll never get to completely be like us, but the fact she's refining her personality gives me a great satisfaction... on her side are the other interfaces whom we all respect, even the spooky Suou. On the other hand, it's my spirit on its own. What will happen with me if I'm successful? It has never crossed my mind to do something so terrible as to kill... lying makes me feel guilty, I need to reach levels of stress very elevated to try to hurt anyone or anything, I didn't even feel strong enough to leave Shamimasen on his own... and today I'm asked to kill this girl... I simply feel it's too much for me... I wish I had the courage to do the right thing...

While I reflected on that, a gigantic blue hand made itself present again, Haruhi, from some undetermined point in the island, formed again a celestial, only this time she concentrated in breaking the energy field that protected her counterpart and mine. Haruhi-Ni did the proper, erecting one of her orange celestials to face the other light titan. This panorama really became so unreal that I began to feel dizzy... it must end soon... I don't have a family anymore, but I still must protect them from this world ending... I must also procure the girl that I just discovered I love...

It was that last thought that broke my indecision bubble... Kyon-Ni without a doubt would open a breach for me, allowing me to reach the girl with the purple headband, I only needed to wait until Nagato-Ni was bowed down... once that requirement was obtained, everything would be in my hands...

An impact brings me back again from my daydreaming, at some hundreds of meters on my right. Koizumi-Ni hardly falls from the sky. He reincorporates with difficulty while the other espers land around him... however, he doesn't fly again, he stands in the middle of his opponents and raises his hands like if he was being aimed with a fire arm. He's been defeated, the two agencies took him in custody and they don't seem to have any intentions to hurt him. I'm glad.

At the other side of the island, Asahina-Ni woke up with soft slaps given by Fujiwara. Waking up, she notices she doesn't have her TPDD anymore and looks with fury badly contained at her antagonist. One by one is falling...

And while the two light titans hit each other mercilessly, what didn't seem possible a pair of days ago occurs. The field that protects Nagato-Ni bursts open, along with the one that protects Haruhi-Ni. Looking at their situation, I can see Nagato, immovable, standing in front of her counterpart, firmly holding her by the neck...

"Submit." That's her order. With a cold and inexpressive voice... but with a barely perceptible proper accent of hate.

Nagato-Ni didn't respond. She simply lowered her face, making it known she didn't have anything else to do or say.

Haruhi-Ni, seeing her last defense fall, lost concentration, allowing her celestial to fall and dissipate... it was my turn to act.

That day of filming the horrible movie we made came to my memory, when we were in Tsuruya's house... when I almost slapped Haruhi for the abuse she did against Asahina. Thinking in retrospect, if it wouldn't have been for Koizumi, only God knows how things would've ended. That memory comes to my mind, because I think about what Kyon-Ni expressed to me: that he never had the courage to try to correct her, to get her out of the monumental mistakes she was making. If truly the way to avoid the dead of millions of people –among them, people I love and I appreciate– it through one dead, I will kill whoever is put in front of me happily... perhaps Kyon-Ni was right and it's in part my responsibility. So, I will fulfil my duty.

Like in a _déjà vu_ , I ran towards Haruhi-Ni, who had her back turned on me. Once again, I raised the knife as high as I could over my head, Kyon-Ni saw me getting close, but faked not seeing me and turned around, trying to leave Haruhi-Ni open... forgive me... damn it, this is horrible! It's the same face, the same body... even the same genetic code of the girl I love! Given the growing silence due to the cease of the battles around us, my steps on the run must've been more than audible to my objective. I was about to reach it; less than five meters were left... and then she turned towards me... she looked at me...

Those eyes would be able to undo me in any situation. Ambar eyes, lit up in hot white, capable of killing with a certain "evil eye" ... those eyes have the same intensity as Haruhi's eyes... it must be because they share the same unknown and mysterious nature. Haruhi-Ni undresses me with that killer's gaze having me at least a meter away from her, knife risen for a second time.

"You won't do it... you don't have what's needed." She tells me, immovable. I despise admitting it, but she's right. "Lower the knife, we both know you won't use it against me."

Damn it... this time I'm really ruined... we all are thanks to my indecision. Without having a very clear picture of what will happen next, I lowered my hand.

Forgive me... I failed everyone... forgive me, Haruhi... after all, it seems I'm not worthy of you choosing me.

And is it like this how everything will end?

Without being able to avoid it, my legs lost their strength and I fell on my knees weakly holding the handle of my weapon.

"You're worth nothing..." She tells me... "Not even because your life is in danger you have the courage to end what you started... you had a lot of courage to keep your little girlfriend away from the fight, but you don't have it to try to bring me down... Is it maybe that your world is worth so little to you and the people that live in it...?" She looks at me with those eyes full of disdain, the same Haruhi had when I just met her. "If everything is worth so little to you... just die and let me finish what I started... I will take your insignificant life, the same you have no intentions to fight for... and the life of my other self, who seems to mean nothing to you in reality."

"What...? How dare you?" I ask her vexed and suddenly out of myself while I turned towards her. "You have no idea what she means to me... You can't even imagine what I could do for her...!"

"What would you do? Stay on your knees like an idiot in front of your executioner while she raises her hatchet which with she will decapitate you? You can't do anything against me!" She begins to scream at me while I notice how her excitement grows. "You can't because you're an idiot and so weak that you let my appearance affect you! Only because I have the same face of the dumb ass you are sleeping with, you can't gather the courage to kill me! What's wrong? Are you afraid to imagine my corpse every time you see her naked? You are so ordinary you disgust me! Nothing as insignificant as you have the right to live! AND I HAVE THE POWER TO DECIDE WHETHER YOU LIVE OR NOT!"

Her last words hit deaf ears. She can call me weak, an idiot, ordinary and every pejorative adjective she can imagine, but not her... Did you want a piece of me? Here you have it!

Haruhi-Ni's eyes almost left their orbits when seeing me suddenly getting up and raising for a third time my weapon over my head. This time it's not surprise... it's legitimate terror... she seems to regret everything she just told me and without being able to contain her fear, she clumsily backs down. She pressed the precise button: to put into question what I feel for Haruhi. She mustn't have done it... the time has come to face the consequences.

Human tact is simply incredible. I could clearly feel how the blade goes through the clothes fibers, how it softly sinks into the skin and slightly stops on the bone... probably the sternum or a rib, to later penetrate the tissue of the cardiac muscle which responds with a spasm in the face of such a violent intrusion... there's a strong splash of blood that has stained my hand, arm, part of my neck and face. Haruhi-Ni's amber eyes, more open if it's possible, looked at me with something that goes beyond absolute terror while she gets her own ration of blood on her face... however, she is surely surprised not to feel any pain at all... because it wasn't her chest I crossed.

With a pull as strong, I recover my knife. When doing it, Kyon-Ni heavily falls on his back, while Haruhi-Ni extends her arms to receive him. Yes, it was he who got the stab... it was his heart I perforated.

Like in slow motion, Kyon-Ni falls into Haruhi-Ni's arms, who kneels to cushion as much as possible the fall of my counterpart. She can't speak, she doesn't even know what to do while she sees my other self breathe with bigger difficulty every time and lose his vital force little by little...

"No... not you... you can't die..." She tells him while putting her left hand with force over his perforated chest, as if with that the wound would close. "You can't die! I prohibit you from dying!"

While Haruhi-Ni continues giving orders to the one who's dying in her arms, the rest of the members of the invading brigade are freed... they begin to slowly walk towards her brigade leader.

A moment later, Kyon-Ni's eyes, barely open, lose their light that was left. His chest doesn't swell up anymore with his respiration, his whole body lost strength and fell inert in Haruhi-Ni's arms.

"Didn't you hear me...?" She asks with her voice broken while lays the corpse on the ground. "You can't die! YOU CANNOT DIE ASSHOLE! COME BACK!" while she says this, she tries to massage his chest, like if CPR would work. "COME ON! COME BACK! COME BACK! COME BACK!" On the last of these tries, instead of massaging, she hit with force the chest of the deceased.

"He's dead." Nagato-Ni says. Although it's obvious, her leader doesn't seem to assimilate it.

"He's not..." She says hitting his chest now without any strength...

Then, she puts her head on his neck. She stayed in silence for some considerable time, for a moment I thought she had fainted. After, out of her mouth came a lament so long and pitiful that it made my skin crawl.

As soon as that happened, a small earthquake shook the island... the closed space was breaking. She closed the eyes of the boy and caressed his face with delicateness, one I believed she would be unable to express.

She stood up and walked towards me, she looked at me again with her eyes full of rage and pointed at me with her right index.

"You... You killed him! You'll pay for that! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU IN A WAY SO PAINFUL THAT YOU'LL BEG ME TO FINISH YOU OFF!"

"SHUT UP!" Without being able to hide my anger, my hand crossed her face with such force that my palm was left hurting. She shook in the face of such backhand. "I didn't kill him! It was you and only you...! and himself! Are you really that blind to not see it? He loved you in such a stupid way that he never put a stop to you! He allowed you to become this imitation of a person to simply not hurt you! He and you are the only ones responsible of what happened! He was who lacked any courage and didn't show any respect of what you meant to him!"

"How can you say that...?" She tried to respond feeling she didn't have any valid arguments.

"You say I'm lacking any courage?" I respond letting all my anger out. "I HAVE ENOUGH COURAGE TO AVOID MY HARUHI TO BECOME A MONSTER LIKE YOU!"

"He loved me!"

"Without a doubt...! But he was so stupid, that he never did anything to make you grow as a person... he confused your well-being with your caprice, he didn't trust you enough to show you the way... and there you have the result..." I said pointing at his body. "And he loved you so much... that he asked me to close this cycle... he loved you so much... that I, being a part of him, must also pay for his sins..." Haruhi had also arrived at where we were and planted herself next to me. I turned to her, although I continued talking to the girl with the purple headband. "His love was such... that he made me make the same decision for a second time..."

Haruhi-Ni was speechless. Her tears fell through her cheeks and without arguing anymore, she went back to the lifeless body of the person she loved most. She took him in her arms and cried for some seconds. The light earthquake from some minutes ago, increased in intensity and the waves collapsed with violence against the walls of the island. The moment of truth had arrived and the end of the whole problem.

"Take them out of here." I ordered Haruhi while holding her hands.

"What will you do?" She asked me doubtful.

"I have to make myself responsible for this."

"I'm not leaving you here..."

"Yes, you will... didn't you hear anything I just said?"

"You'll come back... right?" I didn't respond. Haruhi-Ni wouldn't let me abandon the closed space. That's what Kyon-Ni meant when he said that part of the responsibility was mine being both the same person. I finished him, I must take his place and stay here, whatever it is will happen. Haruhi seemed to understand... of course she understands, she's an intelligent girl... she got close to me as much as she could and whispered in my ear: "I wanted to tell you when we went back home... but I suppose it will be best for you to know it now..." She lowered her face for an instant and topped it off with her voice even lower: "I love you..."

"I already knew it..." I respond without being able to avoid a smile. "I mean... I love you too."

"Imbecile..." She gets away from me without turning her back on me. I moment after, colorful lights surrounded the members of the SOS battalion. Different colors for each person, and an instant after illuminating, they disappeared... she was taking them out of the closed space. A pair of minutes after, only the original members of the Brigade were left. A red light surrounded Koizumi, while Nagato shinned in violet and Asahina in pink. "We will be waiting for you in the club room. We will get our lives back..." Haruhi tells me while she herself shines in yellow lights.

"Of course you will... nothing is impossible for Nagato and you."

I watch her smile one last time and she leaves me there.

Gunkan-Jima violently shakes due to the now immense earthquake that's hitting it. Without any type of eagerness, I sit in front of the now defeated SOS-Ni Brigade. Haruhi-Ni supports my other self in her arms. Next to her, also seated on the ground, Asahina-Ni cries while caressing the hair of the fallen one with sweetness. Koizumi-Ni doesn't have that idiot's face of always, he seems more absent... like if he would've suddenly understood everything that happened. The inexpressive alien of the group also looks sad, and she does have motives to be.

I feel how water falls from the sky. For a moment, I thought it'd be rain, but looking up, I discovered it was residual water from the monster waves that hit the island, product of the earthquake itself. While the closed space collapses around me, my improvised companions seem resigned about their destiny, I suppose they knew sooner or later this would happen... I hope Haruhi can transcend this... of course she will, she's a great person and I was only the catalyst to free the potential she had... now that power has been released, she can continue on her own... Grow more Haruhi! You can make your own effort to better the world...! and with all and that thought so altruist, there's something that saddens me... I hope I'm not forgotten... I hope my classmates can earn me some type of transcendence... I should've asked Koizumi to name any pet he could have after me.

"Why are you sacrificing like this?" Haruhi-Ni asks, taking me out of my thoughts.

"Because I love her. This isn't a sacrifice."

"What do you mean...?"

"A sacrifice is something you do when you don't love, eager to gain a benefit or great good... I wish with all my heart that she has a long and happy life... if for that I must offer my life, I will happily give it. I'm not doing something I don't want to do; therefore, I'm not making any sacrifices."

"Kyon (Ni) always said that kind of things."

"I wish you would've listened to him."

"Nothing will be left when the closed space falls." She warns me.

"I know."

Without being able to change the dejection expression that overflew her face, she turns again towards the guest in her arms. And she closes her eyes. That was the end. The island literally broke in two making one half sink in the sea. Nagato-Ni and Koizumi-Ni kneel to not fall, since with the movement of the ground it is particularly difficult to continue to stand.

The only thing that I have left are my memories, the ones from my friends and classmates, from the ridiculous club which I belonged, and of course, from Haruhi. I had a good life after all, perhaps a little short, but they say that life isn't measured in years lived, but in what you've done with them. I believe that in that sense, I have an advantage over several people.

And to think that everything began with a crazy dream. The sound of the waves breaking is simple deafening. Before realizing it, I'm totally soaked, by now, there isn't a stone unturned amongst the buildings in the island of Hashima, in the prefecture of Nagasaki, which after this end, will be completely intact in the real world.

And when the last support of the island falls, I can see the gigantic wave come towards us. They ignore it, and I wait for it without any fear. I close my eyes concentrating in those memories of the first night Haruhi and I spent out of the closed spaces, where the softness of her skin and the aroma of her hair became more real than ever... that one which memories I knew would bring quietude to my soul at the moment of my death.

 **Chapter 13.**

 **End.**

 **Author Notes:** Is a strange feeling when you finally got to the end of a story, specially if that story is yours. Like see grow your children and realize that even you wanted them to be the way you planned, they are just better than you expect. And now, almost seven years after the first publication of this chapter, I really feel happy and nervous as that very same day. Thank you for reading this story, and with only one update left, I'll be waiting for you reviews. See you!

 **Translator Notes:** Here it is guys. Who saw this coming? Did anyone feel a little bad for Haruhi-Ni? I did a little, hehe. I can't believe Kyon stayed behind. I suppose there wasn't any other thing for him to do. I'm not going to lie, I was very sad at the end of this chapter... I'm sure most of you are feeling the same. Next chapter is the epilogue. We'll get to find out if Haruhi is able to move on from this. I'm sorry it has taking me longer than usual to have the chapters out. Between school, work, and my family, I've been extremely busy. I will do my best to have the epilogue out very soon though, before December starts, hopefully! Until then!


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue.**

 _January 31_ _st_ _._

 _Stupid Kyon...! It's been eight years today... eight years since you stayed in that closed space which I couldn't get you out from... I can remember it like if it were yesterday. When we came back and we waited for you to show up with us at the agora park; we didn't stop nervously looking at each other._

 _Every time these dates come around, they make me feel very nostalgic, I feel an immense need to go back to the closed space and stay there with you, but that can't happen...Despite how painful this is to me, I can't stop writing you a letter every January, in which those memories cloud my judgement and take me to those far away days... with all our friends and the adventures we lived, when we founded the SOS Brigade and we began to act up... okay, I admit it, when I began to act up, when with your boring gesture followed me and tried to avoid making Mikuru end up crying because of me (until this day, I regret that), or when you looked with disdain at how Koizumi followed all my indications without even thinking twice, or how Yuji acceded to my ridiculous requests as if they were anything... the reproaches you had against me or the simple advice you tried giving me... you must know that I always listened to you, but I had a reputation to defend, I couldn't simply obey the lowest ranking brigade member just like that, as much as I wanted to... don't take the last part so serious... you knew it and even then, you tried to make yourself important... pretentious ass._

 _And then, the closed spaces arrived... do you remember? If it wouldn't have been for your stupid idea to hug me that December day, I would've never had the crazy need to take you to those so curious moments... although I must admit that they were almost perfect, nothing was as special as when we took them to the real world... I believe that, without caring how cheesy it may sound, sharing the bed with you those few days was extremely agreeable... not only because of the obvious reasons, but because we could know each other much better... you can know a person better than you can imagine talking to him, or fighting with him... and of course, sleeping with him... we did all three things regularly so it wasn't a problem for us to get to know each other in such a deep way... perhaps way before that, I already felt it, but that time of our lives was without a doubt what reaffirmed my feelings, and surely the same happened to you, I also didn't like all your ways and manias, but I wasn't willing to try to change any of them in reality... I accepted you just the way you were, I wished with all my heart that you never stopped being the boring and judgmental guy that I had met in Spring some years behind, the same guy that thought more in the other brigade members, including me, before thinking on himself, the one that advised without ulterior motives as low as to get any type of advantage from what you told us or did for us... I don't know if you were very noble or very stupid... but you could have any of the girls in the brigade without any effort..._

 _And even then... at the end you chose the person most different from you... I suppose the complement criteria applies, being both opposites, practically in every sense._

 _It's shameful to admit it, but I will... I'm very thankful things happened that way... I infinitely thank life for putting you in my life and allowing us to share something more than high school extracurricular activities._

 _I ignore when I began to love you... what I do know is that I will do it for the rest of the life I have left..._

 _Damn wretch...!_

 _I miss you so much!_

* * *

"We are about to arrive, sir." The taxi driver indicates, I recognize the neighborhood without a problem from here.

After hearing him, I close the laptop on my lap... well, that has been, and by a lot, the cheesiest anniversary letter via email that Haruhi has sent me... come on, it was only two weeks in Mumbai, I didn't even leave the continent this time. Plus, you weren't home all this time either.

This has been a very cold January... even in the last days it has snowed, the neighborhood is buried under a snow layer that looks like a white immaculate dress, like a bride's.

The taxi turns around the agora park, I'm only at some hundred meters from home... I can feel the anxiety... I will finally see them again...

After thanking the taxi driver and paying the corresponding fare, I stand in front the house... my house, the small garden, today covered also with snow, has excavations at various spots, and while I go in I can see the well elaborated fortress in which the snow has made the place... the snow and one little person...

A snowball comes out projected towards me, but I'm too fast for that attack and tackled the shot with my suitcase. I turned towards the source of the attack.

"Get out my fortress!" The little voice behind a mound tells me. Not hearing my response, a dark brown hair surges covered with a thick wintery wool hat. Under it, a pair of enormous and precious amber eyes look at me with suspicion. That faked upset gesture is definitely what I needed after so much time out of the house.

"Aren't you coming to greet me?" I ask opening my arms.

The diminutive figure came out her hiding spot and with her clumsy steps caused by the heavy wintery clothes comes to my encounter. With her characteristic energy throws herself into my arms.

"What did you bring me?" The little girl in my arms asks after kissing my face repeatedly.

"Is that what you care about? Nothing about 'how was your trip, dad?'"

"Eh... How was your trip, dad...? What did you bring me?"

I irremediably laugh... my laugh lasts a little bit, a new snowball attacks me, but having my hands busy, I cannot do anything other than to receive it with my left temple.

"Yeah, what did you bring us?" The second person that just got out of another taxi asks, just like me, author of the second shot.

"For you, nothing," I respond while I get close to her. "There's only one gift for Ryoko. Perhaps for Nagato, eventually for Asahina... I even think I brought a key chain for Koizumi." Arriving at her side, I kiss her like it was the first time. "Although maybe... if you behave, I'll give you a special gift later."

"Naughty." Haruhi responds while takes Ryoko in her arms to greet her.

"Are dad and mom talking about sex?"

Haruhi opens her eyes excessively and looks at me... damn it, she's only six years old and I think she's faster, smarter and stronger than Haruhi and I together... we must be more careful...

By the way, this is Ryoko Suzumiya... she was born during our first year in college, for motives I don't feel like talking about today, Haruhi and I mutually agreed to keep her last name instead of mine when we got married... damn it, the wedding... I've gotten married almost a dozen times through as many religious or civil ritual exists... I had a catholic wedding, a protestant one, a Shinto, a Jewish, a Muslim, a Hindi, even a hippie (hallucinating, by the way, and yes, due to the reasons you're imagining...), due to Haruhi thinking it wasn't fair to devote ourselves to only one God...

What happened with me that day? Well... feeling the end near, Haruhi-Ni made me swear I'd take care of my own Haruhi... once I did it, she, herself took me out of the closed space. She sent me exactly back to school... I desperately ran all the way to the house in the park, until I felt the muscles in my legs would collapse... and then, I continued running until I arrived at where she was.

As you can imagine, it wasn't a difficult task for Nagato to unite forces with Haruhi to restore our space/time and recover our lives and families. We thought for a while to go back to our homes... but at the end we opted to stay together in _our_ house and spend the three month trial our parents had given us. We passed them and we stayed there... when we finished high school, we both obtained good part time jobs which were very well paid and we were also admitted into Toudai... even today, I still have my suspicions that a certain Agency was behind both events... not so much to help Haruhi, because without a doubt she could get in... oh well. Haruhi had to quit her job a little after, since she became pregnant with Ryoko, although she retook it some months after giving birth, of course, without ever getting behind in school...

So many things have happened in the eight years that separate the present from that so extravagant adventure we had...

A petite figure comes out the main entrance of our home, letting the music that plays on the radio come out and floating with it the calm night. Nagato, dressed in a pretty lavender dress looks almost the same as previous years, although she's aged a little. She stays at some meters from us. And she looks at us with her usual lack of expression.

"How did Ryoko behave?" I ask.

"Her behavior in general can be considered adequate." She responds. As soon as we decided to name her Ryoko, Nagato offered watching her, obligation that until today, she happily executes.

"Did you finish your homework?" Haruhi asks the girl.

"Yes." She responds without a doubt, Haruhi turned towards Nagato.

"Completed in a ninety-five-point six percent."

With that said, Haruhi shoots a dangerous look at the little girl, putting her down on the ground.

"I'll finish after dinner..." Yes, homework, she's a kindergarten girl, but you'd be surprised... "Aunt Yuki!" She calls while we see Nagato walk towards the street. She immediately turns. "Will you stay for dinner?"

Nagato stays observing Ryoko for some seconds without moving and then turns towards us.

"I brought Thai food." Haruhi triumphant indicates raising one of the bags she's carrying. "Enough for six people... barely for the four of us."

The alien thought for some seconds and at the end, turns around to come back with us. On the way, Ryoko raises her arms so she can pick her up and Nagato does that. They then go ahead of us to the house, while Haruhi and I stayed outside.

I know the song that plays on the radio... it was a hit in the nineties, when I was a boy... as soon as I caught up with the beat, I took Haruhi by the waist and I began to dance with her while I recited part of the song I remembered:

 _I am everything you want_  
 _I am everything you need_  
 _I am everything inside of you_  
 _That you wish you could be_  
 _I say all the right things_  
 _At exactly the right time_  
 _But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why_  
 _And I don't know why_  
 _Why?_  
 _I don't know_

"Are you sure about that last part?" She asks while she balances with the last chords of the song.

"Of course."

"Not even." With that said she takes my hand to go in the house.

Despite the intensity that past adventure had, the learning experiences received could've been learned without such a crazy panorama... I mean, we learned that love is not always enjoyable, that a frank ignorance is as dangerous as a bad intention, and that everything happens for a reason. And that luckily, that was far from being the last adventure we had to go through. For now, however, I don't think I will narrate another one, but without a doubt I'll let you know about our crazy stories in the near future. The only thing I can tell you is that the SOS Brigade is still active, and not just that... it extended its horizons and range of action, the aliens, time travelers, espers and sliders became an everyday occurrence and new things crossed our paths... but for today, I only feel like having an abundant dinner, taking a bath, putting my daughter to sleep and giving my wife her present...

To be continued...

...!

TO BE CONTINUED?!

 **Epilogue.**

 **Recurrent Dream.**

 **END.**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Well, that was cool. Once I had the idea of translate this work by myself, but I'm totally glad I did not do it then, the reasons are simple: I definitely couldn't do this amazing work and I'm sure I have already dropped it, and I haven't know Luf5, that now is not only a great translator but a good friend who result to have more in common with me that I could even imagine. Well, now the holydays are here, and is time for us for a break, with the first work done, I really like to read what do you think about the whole thing, so I'll be waiting for your reviews. See you next year and happy holydays!

P. S.: The song is "Everything you want" by Vertical Horizon.

 **Translator's Notes:** I finished! Haha. Guys, I'm so happy I was able to translate this story from beginning to end. I've probably made some mistakes, but I hope that those didn't keep you from enjoying it as much I as I did. I also hope you loved the ending. Haha I cannot tell you how happy I was when I found out Kyon had made it. I don't know about all of you, but I personally prefer happy endings. Hehe. I know it's always a bitter/sweet feeling when a good story comes to an end, but I have good news for you... Pepsipez has a handful of stories that follow the SOS Brigade, they are all part of the same timeline and characters... My plan from the beginning was to eventually translate all the stories, and that's still stands. I will take the remaining of the year as a break, and I will begin translating the next story beginning next year. Let me tell you, all his stories are freaking amazing... I couldn't pick a favorite, I love them all. Thank you all for reading, and special thanks to ghostman! It was always great to read your reviews, they mean a lot... Hope you will continue reading in the future. Until next story!


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